Terrorists of purrfection
by ShadowRaven27
Summary: A couple wants to use illegal means to bring about their 'peace' to Zootopia and beyond! The ZPD on the case and hopes to track these crazy mammals down and stop them before they go to far! Meanwhile, Judy and Nick are struggling with their emotions for each other. Will they get their 'happy ever after' through tracking the couple down or will they resist and forever be apart?
1. Chapter 1: Crazy mammals

**Author's note: Hello, hello, hello and thanks for taking the time to read this! Is my first fanfic and I hope you enjoy it!**

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Chapter 1: Crazy mammals

A very particular couple walked paw in paw down the street and into the famous restaurant of Furchester. The feline waiter guided them to the corner of the restaurant where the view of the entire place could be seen. The male mammal held out the chair for his mate and she sat down elegantly, allowing him to continue his gentlemammaly act. They both smiled as a goat waiter set down a bowl of deliciously dressed salad and a plate of perfectly steamed fish on their table. The two smiled broadly at each other and took their first bite when….

The door of the restaurant burst open with a BANG! The patrons started to run but were all captured in a flash. All were tied up and gagged except for the couple who remain undisturbed. A wolf wearing sunglasses and a black suit strolled up to the couple and bowed.

"Mr and Mrs Scarleski, will you allow us lowly terrorists continue with our business?" The two mammals silently nodded and watched as the terrorists made their demand for money. They sighed as the romantic atmosphere returned,

"How is _it_ going so far?" his mate smiled with satisfaction.

"It is going well. And soon, we will be able to accomplish our goal. Soon, all of Zootopia will realize their mistakes." They smiled happily as they raised their glasses and smirked down upon the unsuspecting citizens of Zootopia.

Hours later, the terrorists were tracked down and captured by the police. Sirens blared as police cruisers drove down the street back to the station. Judy yawned and relaxed in her seat, getting as relaxed as a rabbit could be.

"Tired already, Carrots? Boy I was so sure you'd prove me wrong." She rolled her eyes. She almost wished she didn't need to share the cruiser with her snarky partner, Nick Wilde.

"Har har, I might not have proved you wrong about not being tired till midnight but you definitely can't beat me in a marathon even _if_ I'm tired!"

Nick snorted at her retort. Not that he was denying it, that bunny had a lot of stamina. They laughed as they continued to banter in the cruiser until they reached the station. Judy dashed out of the cruiser and headed for the female locker room, eager to refresh herself with a nice, warm and short, shower. They had the worse time, chasing a wolf terrorist who refused to give up and had tried to escape. He was a tricky one, using the back alleys to distance himself from them. If not for Nick who knew them like the back of his paw they would never have caught him! Nick laid back in the seat for a moment, recalling an embarrassing moment during the chase. To capture the wolf who had climbed up emergency stairs to escape he had to launch the rabbit at him to at least knock him out so they could catch him. While launching the bunny he had secretly admired her small but well-maintained build that made him want to…. He didn't finish the thought and if not for his red fur mammals passing by would be able to see his blushing face. He got out of the cruiser and headed for the male's locker room and hoped the shower would drown out that thought. _If only_ …... he mulled over the thought.

Judy drowned her thoughts in the shower, wanting the pelts of water wash her impossible wish away but it never once did go away. It was like a stain you couldn't get out of your shirt no matter how many times you washed it. She sighed as she thought back to the moments she shared with Nick. If only they were the same species, then maybe she wouldn't stop herself from having fantasies that she knew would never come true. If only they weren't predator and prey, then maybe they'd be more than what they were now. _So many if onlys_ …. She sighed as she thought about how much she… liked being Nick's friend. _Cheese and crackers! Even if I wish for it Nick and I can never be together. We are different species! Better yet, natural enemies! Way to pile up the irony…._ She rapidly thumped her feet on the floor, nearly slipping. She decided to get out before she hurt herself by slipping on the wet floor of the stall.

Getting out was refreshing, the cold night breeze in his fur and a beautiful bunny awaited him to drive her home. Nick was internally in bliss while he dawned his smug smile to cover up how he felt.

"Ready to go, Carrots?"

"What do you think I'm here for? Hm, Nick?"

Ah. The sweet smile of his partner made him a little happier that night. He snickered and opened the door of the passenger seat open in a gentlemammally fashion.

"Milady?" he snickered. He almost gasped as Judy's ears became a little pink. He wanted to say that 'c' word but held his tongue.

"Are you ready to go home, Milady?" he wiggled his eyebrows for a good measure. Trying to keep his teasing light. The bunny snapped back to reality and awkwardly stepped inside Nick's green car. The fox snickered as he got into the driver seat. They had their friendly banter as usual on the way to Judy's apartment, both secretly at ease in the comfort of each other. Time flew by and they quickly reached Judy's apartment. Both left a little lonely as they waved goodbye to each other, both wishing for a little more time so that they could continue to enjoy each other's company how long they wanted. But they hid their true feelings and kept them under wraps. Nick drove back home which felt like an eternity, entering his apartment he suddenly got a call. He smiled fondly as he saw who the caller was and picked up the phone.

"Hi mom. How've you been?"

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 **Authors note: Have you enjoyed the story? I hope you did! I really, really, really couldn't wait to write this so I think there might be a few minor things you may not be satisfied with. Hm. Wonder what they are. Any who my mom's calling me so I gotta go! ;)**


	2. Chapter 2: Mom

**A/N: Hi and welcome to the second chapter! Hope very much that you'll enjoy this next chapter because it took me some time to figure out the perfect date(?) for two officers. Well, as much as I like the idea it's up to you readers to decide if this is up to your standards, but I think it's kinda sweet once I read it again. Hope you enjoy it!**

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Chapter 2: Mom…

"Hello dear. I'm doing great, and I assume, so are you?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Great! And what about Judy? How is she?"

"Carrots? Yeah she's doing well." He heard his mother sigh.

"What is it mom? What's wrong?"

"Well…... I was wondering if you and Judy has gotten together yet." If Nick was drinking water right then he would've spat it out.

"Mom?! What are you saying?! Me and Judy together? But we are…" His mother interrupted him in a huff.

"Oh, Nick what are _you_ saying? Nothing should be keeping you two lovely mammals together. I mean, Judy is a lovely girl and anyone can tell by looking that you feel for each other." Nick blushed slightly and was grateful his mother wasn't in the room right now.

"B-but mom…"

"No but's Nick! You should ask her out sometime soon, bring her on a date! Or maybe dinner!" His mother smiled gently on the other side of the phone while he was silent. As a mother, she knew her son was worried about something. She sighed,

"Nick. If it's about you and Judy being different species as well as natural enemies in the past just remember the past is in the past. Love, isn't something that can be stopped and I for one know that. No matter how much you deny or keep it inside love is still love. Don't fight it Nick. I at least don't want you to regret not confessing to her at least once."

Nick pondered on his mother's words. Sure, it sounded a little too much but it gave him a little more confidence. Maybe he would ask Judy to at least dinner. Confessing would just come later. He smiled and thanked his mom over the phone and hang up. He smiled to himself and a plan formed in his mind. He would make use of their day off tomorrow and hopefully it would go smoothly. Nick smirked and started to make a few calls before heading to bed.

The next day wasn't supposed to be a day to wake up early but Judy got woken up at 5:30 am anyways. Her internal clock just couldn't let her sleep any longer and she wasn't really that sleepy anyways. She microwaved a few carrots and smirked ironically at them. _Guess that's why he calls me carrots. Or was it because I am a bunny?_ She pondered a little on that thought when she heard her doorbell rang.

"Coming!" she shouted and raced to her door. Who could it be so early in the morning? To her surprise, it was the mailmammal.

"Package for a Judy Hopps?" he questioned. She was too shocked to even think before signing her name and soon she found that the mailmammal had gone and she was standing awestruck at her doorway. She closed the door behind her and opened the package. In it was a brand-new model of a carrot pen, the exact same one that had been broke by a runaway criminal a few weeks before, and a note. It read.

"Dear Carrots.

Like the new carrot pen I gave you? I know it's sudden by do you want to spend the day with me? Give me a call when you receive this package.

From your favourite fox, Nick Wilde."

She raised her eyebrows and went to her phone and keyed in the number of her partner. He picked the phone and spoke in the same lazy tone he always used.

"Hey there, Fluff! Like the new carrot pen I sent you?"

"Yeah, I just got it from the mailmammal…. Why did you want to send the day off with me again?" She heard a little 'Opf' from the fox.

"You wound me, Carrots. Are you saying I can't spend a day off with my favourite bunny?" she couldn't tell if he was joking or was serious. At least he didn't _seem_ to have anything up his sleeve. But then again it always seemed that way. She sighed, whatever could go wrong? She had to deal with his pranks, snark, and mischief every day after all. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, Slick. I'll spend the day with you if you miss me so much." he chuckled from his side of the phone making sure the happy swish of his tail made any noise for her sharp ears to catch.

"Okay then! I'll pick you up at 9am. See you later Carrots."

He happily hung up while Judy raised a brow at the confusing behaviour from the fox. Yup, something was definitely up. She smelt the air and realized her carrots were burning.

"Cheese and crackers!" she screamed before taking out the plate of carrots and putting out the flames. Least she knew never to make a call while not paying attention to microwaving food. She sighed, might as well get ready now and worry about what Nick was up to later.

At 9am as promised Nick rang on Judy's doorbell and was here to pick her up. She expected him to be there in his infamous Pawaiian shirt and stripped tie but instead she found him at her doorstep with brand new and dashing look! He had a beige vest over a navy-blue shirt and it brought out more of his lean muscles and a smirk was stuck onto his muzzle. He chuckled as Judy stared at him in a daze.

"Like what you see, Carrots?" Judy's jaw snapped back in place as she stuttered.

"W-what are you-"

"I have to at least dress up since we only get today to do this and it's back to the grind." She marvelled how good he looked and tried to stop her desire to k-kiss… She shook her head. _No, can't let him get to you now Judy!_ She was determined not to let her emotions get the best of her.

"You know what? You're right. We should really dress up a little, it'd really would be a pity if this chance went to waste!" Nick chuckled.

"That's the sprit Carrots!"

She allowed the fox in while she went into her room to change her clothes. Nick sank into the couch with a satisfied smirk. It was always worthwhile to see any of her expressions, he loved them all. She was adorable with any expression on her face, even when she was mad Nick couldn't help thinking it was cute. The door to Judy's bedroom opened and he had to keep his jaw from dropping. Judy had stepped out of the room with a dazzling purple dress. The sleeves were wavy and it hugged her curves beautifully and it entranced him to see his bun-partner in a dress that. _Don't give in now Nick. You've got to stay calm and everything will go smoothly._ He took a deep breath to calm himself before he faced the bunny with a smirk. He had to admit that she was one beautiful bunny. Judy's ears had a little tint of pink that Nick found cute and a shy smile of uncertainty.

"W-what do you think?" So. Very. Adorable. It was that the tip of his tongue but held it down.

"Very dazzling, Carrots. Shall we go?" Nick politely stretched out his arm and Judy shyly held on to him as they went out of the apartment. The day was more enjoyable in each other's presence, it was a walk in the park with a picnic surprise by Nick the it was off to sightsee the city. They strolled around the Sahara Square and were glad for once they weren't on patrol and could just relax. There were a couple of fugitives along the way to their next destination, decidedly suggested by Nick which was the movies, and had caught them all and handed them to their colleagues who were on duty. With a few teasing comments, low whistles and appreciation the pair made their way to the movies to watch 'The Boss Kit'. Which was about a seven-year-old cheetah version of the director who one day meets a baby cheetah kit in a suit who had appeared out of nowhere in front of his house by cab. The kit acts oddly around him and the he finds the kit could talk like adult! Once the fog of negativity lifts from them about each other the seven-year-old decides to help the kit with his adult like mission.

The movie was a big hit and even Nick seemed to enjoy it. Judy blushed when she thought about how dashing Nick was in his navy shirt and beige vest. She vowed to herself not to reveal her love for him but this was getting hard! She just couldn't _not_ look at the fox whose handsomeness had risen considerably. The fox himself was having a hard time trying not to stare at Judy. He had to struggle to keep a calm face as he felt her intense stare travel up and down his figure in the darkness of the cinema. He really, _really_ wanted to just be intimate with her but he knew he couldn't. Today was just bringing her out for a day off and nothing else. At least he had listened to his mom a little and brought Judy out. Right?

After the movie ended Nick brought her to one last place to end the day. He brought her to a nice restaurant with calming music drifting by the ears of the restaurant's patrons as they talked amongst one another. A waiter brought them to a table with a great view of the city lights from above.

"It's quite the view here." Judy commented as she sighed and was mesmerized by the thousands of twinkling lights in the distance. Nick smiled warmly at her.

"Yes. Quite the view…." Dinner was served shortly after and they relished the food with delight. They spoke happily for a few moments when they turned back to the window again. Looking at the far away lights. The words she said the very first day in the force came back to her. "Ready to make the world a better place?" she had said to the stoic officer Mchorn. He had been ignorant then and showed his disinterest and pushed her away but look at what she had done. She had solved a major case that might have tipped the balance and peace if her enemy, Bellweather, had succeeded but she stopped her. She became one of the most respected officer in Zootopia. She was now partner with an ex-con artist who was now her best friend and partner in the force. The first fox officer in the force ever.

She had come so far since then, it was like all that had just happened yesterday. She smiled fondly at the memories when she noticed a warm smile from Nick. From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw love gleaming in his big emerald orbs when he smirked and got up, offering her his hand.

"Well. It's getting late, and I don't want my partner to sleep on the job tomorrow so let's get you back home. You'll need all the rest you can get." She smiled as she took his hand and walked out of the restaurant arm in arm with her crush. _I wonder…. If he will be my crush forever…._ The worry of that thought somehow made her a bit panicky. She realized that she didn't want Nick to just be someone she liked but never confessed to. But what was she to do? In a place where interspecies relationships were abnormal and even more so between natural enemies. This one emotion that could crumble their relationship as best friends if he didn't feel the same. Her mind in a muddle of thoughts she walked back home with Nick as she absent-mindedly walked beside him and ran on autopilot. Was she ready to take on all the obstacles ahead to be together with him?

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 **A/N: Have you enjoyed the story? I hope you did but that's up to you. A little fun fact about this story is that it is kinda based of some of my friends delusions about having dates with his/her girl/boyfriend and gave an idea to me to make this sweet little chapter. A storm arises after the sea is calm for too long! In the next chapter I hope it'll be just as good quality but we'll see how it goes. Until next time! See ya. ;)**


	3. Chapter 3: Old memories rather forgotten

**A/N: Alright! Things are getting serious! I read this chapter again and noticed a few errors in it so to those who have read it before I'm terribly sorry. I promise that somethings are changed to better express and cause you less frustration at my errors!**

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Chapter 3: Old memories

Nick was humming a tune whilst walking down the street, his partner walking beside him. They were on patrol for the day and they did their usual rounds in and out of their cruiser and occasionally turning to speak to a few mammals who had wanted their autograph. Judy's sharp ears picked up his melodious tune and she couldn't help internally swoon at her partners dreamy voice. Or was it just her swooning over her love for him as usual. She just listened and enjoyed his humming as she secretly wanted to enjoy his charming voice more. Nick was unaware of his partner's sudden interest in his humming and thought about their date disguised as a day out. It had gone smoothly and he was happy to have made his partner happy at least once. His sarcasm he often used was to defend himself but he knew that that bad habit had to be changed. But as they say, old habits die hard, and it would be hard for him to get rid of it with his emotions sometimes being his emotions and trying to take over him. Or as they say, acting on emotions.

He stopped humming when they got to the station. He had only then realized that his partner was listening to him hum and had stopped out of embarrassment. They reported to the chief and the bull seemed happy that there wasn't any trouble all day while he was tasked to watch over the progress of investigation of the terrorists. The pair went for their usual refreshing showers and this time Nick was the one waiting for Judy to arrive. He smirked when he saw the bunny's fur a bit wet and messy and gave them a light comb with his claws. Unexpectedly, Judy seemed to relish in his touch for a moment before pulling away in mock anger and puffed her cheeks. He was stunned but didn't let it show. Never let them see that they get to you. That was his motto. But this time he wondered if he could really keep the act up with his partner and, admittedly, crush acting so cute. He struggled to keep his eyes focused on the road and not on the cute bunny next to him whose scent had somehow reached his nose. The unsuspecting Judy was dealing with different problems. She couldn't get Nick's charming voice out of her head! And when Nick had combed through her fur with his claws she knew he had seen her relish in his touch before she snapped back to her senses and pulled away. That was way too close! He might've started to suspect her feelings towards him, and that might mean the end of their partnership, friendship, and even the closeness that she loved. She didn't have the courage and the resolve to confess right now. Now she was wondering when would she steel herself to get herself out of this dump and go head on with any challenge as she usually did. _No, he's a whole different matter…_ She thought as she sat in a daze, distracted by the many things on her mind.

Nick arrived at Judy's apartment and he had found that the doe had fallen asleep. She had curled up into a little ball and breathed steady breathes as she continued her slumber. Not even stirring when Nick shook her. Sighing, Nick carried Judy up into her apartment. He had to struggle to find the key to the door whilst balancing the sleeping doe in his arm. After he finally opened the door. Nick placed Judy on the couch for the time being and took her bag in the apartment and locked the door with a satisfying 'click'. As he picked her up to carry her to bed she nuzzled herself into his chest, a small smile growing on her muzzle. Nick was entranced by the adorable sight. He held his breath as she nuzzled into him more, leaning into his cream-colored chest fur. Judy smiled and he felt his stirring emotions of love grow, urging him to peck her gently so she wouldn't wake.

"I love you. Nick…" Nick's eyes bulged at the sudden declaration. Judy… Loved him?! He couldn't almost contain his delight! He struggled to not yell or jump up in happiness and on the inside his heart sped. Leaving him happier than he had ever been. Judy suddenly stirred and Nick hurriedly placed her on the bed and left the room. Happier than he had ever been he almost left with a spring in his step and he couldn't help but have his heart soar. This was bliss, this was happiness! Unknowing to the fox, instead of the calm smirk her had intended, a small smile graced his muzzle.

The next day unfortunately was bad news. Sullen and serious faces exited the bull pen that filled the air with dread. Another terrorist attack had happened, and the terrorists had demanded 20,000 dollars for releasing the hostages. It happened only this morning at Saliva's café, a place where many mammals liked to frequent. The café was famous for their special blueberry and chocolate ice cream on waffles and it was rush hour in the morning when the terrorists struck. Like the last time they were handled with ease and so far, the mammals were now behind bars. It struck odd in Judy but she had no time to be sure and had to finish the stack of paperwork which was stack quite high above her head. Being a small mammal it almost didn't mean much but compare it to a similar stack that Nick had and you could see that it also towered over him, a medium-sized mammal. She scribbled away at bunny speed as she was lost in her thoughts while Nick was already done with half of the stack. Now that made Judy feel like silently challenging who could finish first and started to write more furiously, it seemed as if her papers were going to catch on fire as she wrote. Nick admired the amount of spirt she had while doing the towering stack of paperwork. It had occurred to him that she was challenging herself but decided to keep quiet as her competitive smile captivated him and he didn't want to miss it. It wasn't rare but it certainly made him feel as if he had more energy to make it to the end of the day. He smirked to hide his secret and continued to steadily make the stack over his head decrease.

Finally, the day ended and they could go home. It was exhausting to some extent but finishing it made them feel a little proud of themselves to finished that massive pile of paperwork. As they indulged in their comfortable silence Nick's nose twitched. The smell of smoke was coming from the next street. He stepped on the gas and the car raced along the street, arriving at the destination just in time to see flames. Several bombers had appeared. Luckily it was just smoke gas and the patrons of the shop had quickly escaped. He was about to call in his ZPD colleagues for back up when he heard wailing in the shop. He hastily ran inside as she shouted to Judy.

"Carrots! Call for back up, now!" Judy took out her phone and dialled chief Bogo's number without missing a beat.

"Hello?"

"Hopps! Do you know how-"

"Yes, I know you're very busy sir but there are some bombers in a shop in Sahara Square. We need back up right now."

The other end of the phone was silent before she heard the stomping footfalls of the buffalo whilst he instructed several officers to attend to the scene. Judy sent them the coordinates and hoped that they would be here on time to stop the bombers. She gradually felt more and more worried about her partner who had ran inside after hearing the wailing of a kit in the shop. Why had he taken so long. She couldn't just stand there anymore and ran inside the foggy shop. The shop was full of furniture and see guessed that that was what it was, a furniture shop. She scurried through the fallen and broken furniture only to see something that horrified her. Nick was laying there, unconscious kit under his arm and his head bleeding. Taking a closer look, he had a collar on his neck. She knew what it was, unfortunately and so did Nick. She hurriedly used a cloth she had found and it was luckily big enough to stop the blood from flowing anymore. As she stepped outside, blaring sirens could be heard. Signalling that the ZPD was here. Unfortunately, the bombers had gone and they ambulance was called to bring the kit and Nick for examinations. Judy sat outside of the room Nick was in and wonder what had happened inside, as well as recalled memories from the past she had rather remained forgotten.

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 **A/N: And~ here's to the end of the third chapter! Those who reread it from the first time I posted this chapter I hope you didn't spot any more errors! But if you do please feel free by PMing me or through the reviews! Unitl next time!**


	4. Chapter 4: Haunting past

**A/N: Sorry for the wait! This one took some time to finish and it was a short one no less! I haven't have my head in the game recently so forgive me for the wait! This is the fourth chapter! Enjoy!**

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Chapter 4: Haunting past

Nick awoke with a sting in his head and found bandages wrapped around his wound. He was in a hospital bed and found a surprisingly cute sight next to him. Judy had stayed next to him and had laid her head on his bed, fast asleep. He resisted the urge to pet her long ears and kept his hands to himself, distracting himself with the television in the room. The news on screen displayed a scene of smoke filled shop and he unconsciously reached for his neck to scratch it only to find what he was surprised to see was a shock collar. He was surprised… at the same time very scared. It was like that time around three months ago. A lone mammal had put the exact same one on… He shook his head, he couldn't let it get to him. Not now. His partner stirred and rubbed her groggy eyes as she stretched and yawned.

"Good morning Nick." He smiled at the heart warming sight.

"Morning Carrots."

His partner's eyes were a little dull and had lost a little of its colour. He noticed that she was staring at the collar and lifted her chin up and smiled softly.

"Don't think about it. I'll be fine."

"No…. You won't be…"

Her voice lost its usual energy and she gripped his arm tightly as she stared at the bright green light emitted from the collar. She pulled her eyes away painfully as she excused herself to the restrooms. Nick felt the coldness of the collar, recalling the coldness even colder than the temperatures in Tundra Town. The eyes of a merciless and twisted tiger, Jones Scarleski. The son of one of the richest mammal in Zootopia Darwin Scarleski. The Scarleski family may be one of the wealthiest because of being one of the most successful businesses for trade but they were also wealthier than most because of their undercover occupations being a gang dealing with catnip which was banned in Zootopia. More than once had they sold to wealthy family not far behind from them in wealth to just gain more bucks and to bury themselves in fame and fortune for whatever they wanted.

As a family of proud tigers, they had a very strong and proud appearance in Zootopia and such that the other families poorer than them cower back in fear that they would execute any one of them at any time. Nick shivered at the recollection and was happy to have his fluffy partner back next to him and holding his paw. Even if it was just out of friendship he felt the warmth of her paw spread to his. He his fears dispersed and he smiled at her, giving her paw a little squeeze to comfort her. Judy's mind was in three months ago when she stared into the cold eyes of Jones Scarleski. What he had done then always haunted the dark corners of her mind and she had hoped it would never happen again. Though now it seemed like he was determined not to give up his goal. News of him being released from jail so long ago had made her uncomfortable. The possibility of it happening again made her shiver in fear.

She put his paw to her face and a tear formed and fell from her amethyst orbs. Nick couldn't watch her be so down for long and brought her onto his hospital bed, hugging her to him and unconsciously wrapped his tail protectively around her. She felt the soft tail around her and instantly felt more reassured. After the doctor told them that Nick was released from the hospital Judy insisted to accompany him to his apartment. Nick had decline but he couldn't resist her when she made adorable baby eyes and he reluctantly gave in. They silently walked down the street, the traffic on the roads a distant sound as they bitterly got lost in their own thoughts. Once they reached Nick's apartment Judy watched as Nick disappeared behind the door. Her walk home was long and lost much colour, unlike when she was with Nick. Their haunting past together had already dulled their world but being with him had at least made the world around her brighter than she would've hoped. Without him by her side she felt a little lonely. She reached her apartment and locked the door heavily behind her. She didn't really bother to change before going straight to bed. The soft bed did nothing to calm the fear in her. She wished that Nick was here, right now. Hoping that tomorrow would be better. But horrible news awaited them, much to their dismay. Chief Bogo loomed over them, a rare sight of grim on his muzzle.

"The terrorist mammals have confessed that they were paid to do this." He sighed as he mulled over what the investigation team had told him.

"And that the one who paid them…. Is Jones Scarleski and his newlywed wife Carla Scarleski." He looked at the pair in front of him and understood how they felt. It was indeed a weird and strange occurrence that cold-hearted mammal like Jones knew love and teamwork enough to wed. And to her no less.

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 **A/N: Hope you have some thoughts to share about this chapter and if you do feel free to tell me in the reviews! And recently I've been thinking about this silly little question. "What makes fanfiction?" I know, silly right? But I really wanna know~ so if you have the answer to this question then put it in the reviews and please help me clear my head of this question! Till next time~ ;)**


	5. Chapter 5: Cheer up Carrots!

**A/N: *Rubs eyes***

 **Heya guys and girls reading this and possibly ladies and gentlemen. This is the fifth chapter and I'm really tired of rereading everything and checking ta see if there are typos in this so I hope that there will be reviews today about stuff I doesn't seem ta fit and just so ya know I sometimes type like this just fer fun and I'm Singaporean so I might write differently from you and such so... let's just let the story do the talking. Oh! And, also. For those of you readers re-reading this I noticed a minor flaw and changed it a little.**

 ***Yawns***

 **gotta go wash my face...**

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Chapter 5: Cheer up Carrots!

Carla. A name that have made even some of the biggest crime bosses shake at her name. She was the most worst mammal to anger, if something didn't stick right with her she might as well immediately beat the heck out of it and throw it into her infamous pit of burning acid. Grossly green, obviously acidic and dangerous, large pit of acid. She was never on anyone's side but her own. She stuck to her ideals and changed her motives on a whim, making sure she stayed hidden beneath a veil of darkness. No one knew her face…. That is until she married to Jones. The husband had to know his wife's face, right? Rumours spread but they were only as such but that was all the buffalo could find, rumours. Not even a single person knew of how she looked, exempting Jones, not even one even knew which species she was. The only thing her accomplices or acquaintances knew anything but she was female. Some weren't even sure she was, well, a she. He had found out from the terrorists that she had hired them just to wreak the places she told them to and their money would be given to them via the bank. The ageing buffalo furrowed his brows at the documents on his table and wondered how the pair who knew about the case were fairing right now. Secretly though, he reminded himself of the betting pool held regularly every day that he had participated in for quite some time with his fellow officers. The officers in the pool had been hoping for said pair to get together sooner or later and he had to admit that the subconscious signs of them showing it was killing him. Why in the heavens weren't those two together yet? He sighed as he pulled out his phone to tinker around with the latest Gazelle app to take his mind of things.

Meanwhile, said pair were silently doing their paperwork. Each of them had thoughts coursing through their heads with such speeds that it was comparable to the speed of a car speeding a hundred and fifty miles per hour. They ran on auto mode for about an hour or two and their progress on the piles of paper on their desks weren't demising as quickly as usual. The fox tod was first to recover from his daze and looked over to his partner to realize that she looked quite dead and her speed, although faster compared to a certain sloth they knew, was incredulously slow. He couldn't bear Judy looking this dead although no wondrous idea to cheer her up came to mind. _At a time like this, we need some time out._ He thought to himself and resolved himself to get out of his desk and tap the rabbit on the shoulder. She jolted and a few of her papers flew from her desk.

"H-huh? W-what? Nick?"

She cutely stammered as Nick caught the flying papers before they touched the ground. He smirked as he drank in her surprised face.

"Awake now Carrots?"

She stammered a small "Y-yes." Before Nick chuckled.

"You seem a little out of it Carrots, wanna go out for an afternoon snack?"

Her ears perked, he had seldom suggested to go for an afternoon snack. Much less on duty.

"Sure…" She followed fox tod as they went out to their usual café drawing a questioning look from the owner but she didn't say anything. The pair sat under an umbrella and enjoyed the caffeine course through them, giving them more energy. Both didn't expect to be as drained as they were but were aware of the cause of their lack of energy. The news that their old enemy had risen again now with a different motive? To be honest the motive of James and his wife were not known. All they knew were that the couple had hired terrorists to attack some cafés and restaurant and there was barely any pattern more obvious that they were all places where there were food and certain amount of fame. But that didn't explain their motives. They had also had the latest group of terrorists to put a shock collar on him! It didn't make any sense and wasn't much of a clue to their motives either.

It made the truth all the vaguer and some had come to conclusions of their own. Hiring terrorists to destroy the businesses of the food industry as they were planning to set up their own and want to be incredibly famous even if their food wasn't as good as the food as the places where they had destroyed. To starve the evolving city of Zootopia to make predator and prey revert to past ways. To slowly wreck Zootopia so that mammals would leave and they would create a city of their own. There were quite a few bizarre conclusions and some more decent and logical ones but all of those didn't seem to add up to the answers. Nick mused over the imaginative mammals' conclusions and silently applauded them for coming up with their conclusions as such as they all were very fun to imagine but he didn't think that any were the true motives of the couple. The rest, however, had no such luck as well and conclusions became made into delusions after spreading over the news and the web. Some mammals were convinced with some of the conclusions listed of on Furbook, Twitter, and such and had started to act upon it and rely to the government to get the ZPD to stop the terrorist and the masterminds soon. While Nick mused over what other crazy antics some mammals had done, Judy on the other hand was worrying about the collar. While it was visible, most mammals thought it was just a choker or some collar for Nick's fashion sense but Judy knew better than to leave Nick to think that he was completely fine for long as she never really told anyone the effects of the collar, it made it even worse that she was the only person who knew. It shocked the wearer when to overexcited or there was a high increase in heartrate and there was a remote that could be used to shock the wearer at will if the person holding the remote. It was a torture tool in her eyes and she knew of it as well as probably Jam es and Carla. It was a dangerous thing and could potentially kill the wearer if shocked too many times.

She mulled over her thoughts again and her feet mindlessly followed Nick back to the station. Nick noticing the dead eyes on the bunny one more made him worried. He tapped her shoulder again, once again startling the doe.

"Hey Carrots. You all right?"

"Y-yeah! Fine. Just thinking about some things."

 _Like about the collar maybe?_ He thought to himself and felt his worry grow more as his partner fiddled with her paws and muttered something he didn't care to hear. She looked so down and seemed to have lost her spark and that honestly took the energy out of him too but he racked his brain instead and tried to think of something to cheer her up. His eyes caught on to something and lit up. Smirking slyly as he skulked away while his partner continued to talk to herself. Judy suddenly found herself alone and wondered where her partner was. As she was looking around she felt something it her and explode, causing her to get soaked in water. She turned around in shock to see Nick holding an arm full of water balloons and standing next to a booth selling packets of them. He smirked at her.

"One who gets soaked the most buys the other dinner!" he declared.

His declaration sparked her competitive spirit and she bought her own packet and filled them up with water. The next few minutes were spent in a hectic water balloon battle. Every time a water balloon hit them they forgot all their worries as they got more and more soaked. In the end, it was a tie and it was getting late. They walked back to the station and hurriedly dried themselves before they furiously worked their pens and tried to finish the stack of paper work they had forgotten about during their time outside the station. They had an earful from Bogo about wasting time outside the station without permission but both didn't regret stepping outside. It had raised their spirits and Nick took pride that it was his idea that got Judy to cheer up. His heart fluttered when he saw her smiled and…

 _Wait a minute…. No, nope, not going there. Uh-uh, you know you can't have these feelings you stupid fox. Get a grip!_ Nick shut his feelings back into its chest and chained it back again with heavy shackles. He sighed, he knew it would never disappear but he had to keep it chained up at least for now. He didn't want to make Judy more panicked and distressed than she already was. He thanked his lucky stars that there was a fun fair going on near the park for some reason or another that he didn't pay attention to, all he wanted was to cheer up his best friend and partner and it succeeded so what did it matter. The two went home and soaked in their satisfaction and the memories they made today. They both went to sleep that night and they could agree that that was the best sleep they got in a while.

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 **A/N: Okay~ now I feel refreshed. Washing yer face can do wonders I tell ya.**

 ***Looks around awkwardly***

 ***Coughs***

 **Okay, okay, back to formal english. Hope you guys like this chapter I know I'm saying more than I do before but that's just me having way too much free time. June holidays equals to too much free time and one too many holiday assignments then I care to do. T_T Well, I am hoping I get ten or more reviews this round but that's just me dreaming and well that's all the talk I have so until next time! Chao~**


	6. Chapter 6: Attack of the terrorists!

**A/N: Yes, this up date was made really fast and I apologize because this was totally last minute and might seem unrealistic but this was all I got. Now a few mentions to some of you who has given me reviews:**

 **Zootopian Fluf: Thanks for the shout out!**

 **Messenger 777: ... Okay, honestly I don't know much about the bible cause I'm not Christian but... sorry, what was that all about? I dropped in the pit of confusion here so please tell me what you mean when you posted that.**

 **So yeah. That's it and don't focus on my confusion and enjoy the chapter.**

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Chapter 6: Attack of the terrorists!

The next morning, Nick and Judy were startled awake by a phone call instead of their alarms at 4 am. There was some devastating news from their chief and they had to rush to the station after changing quickly into their uniforms. A smoke bomb was dropped nearby and Judy rushed towards the scene. The chief was right, many mammals were falling prey to the terrorists and they could be seen capturing and gagging citizens everywhere. She pulled out her gun and started to shoot at the terrorist mammals with great accuracy. She ushered the citizens to cover but more and more of the other terrorists were coming her way. She darted a look at the building the citizens had taken cover in before locking her eyes on the group in front of her. Many mammals faced her from predator to prey. Lions, wolves, otters, antelopes, all in the same group charged towards her some raising a battle cry. She observed them closely as she expertly darted all of them with her gun and noticed how they were all wearing shock collars. Her worry for Nick quickly surfaced from the back of her mind. What if Nick got shocked while she wasn't with him? What if he had to join with the terrorists so that he could avoid getting shocked? What if he was shocked and resisted? He might be dead! She couldn't let her mind wonder for long as soon the mass of mammals were surrounding her.

"Give up, rabbit and surrender to us!" said a wolf.

"Or what?" she dared ask. She had to buy time for herself to breath. She noticed that she was slightly out of breath from kicking some of the mammals to knock them out and using the walls of buildings to shot them with better accuracy. The mammals looked around at each other with wicked smiles.

"Or you die in our leader's acid pit, cotton tail!"

"I don't think so."

A voice came from behind the left of the group surrounding her. She took that chance to knock out some of them with kicks and some darts. When all of them were down she turned to see Nick. She was delighted but that didn't last for long. Nick's eye were flicking painfully between yellow slits and green orbs as electricity crackled around the collars.

"Nick! What…"

"They shock any mammal who don't obey them. And the orders come out of the speaker you didn't notice before." Nick explained while pointing to the front of the collar. Indeed, there was a speaker there but it was covered by his fur before so she couldn't see it. She held his paw tightly as his ears twitched.

"We have to end this attack soon so we can get that thing off you."

"I don't think it's gonna come off without the remote. If we even try to take it off with force it'll just shock me more."

"But then! How…"

Judy was at a loss. What could she do to ease his suffering? Nick sensed that she was down and did the only thing that came to mind just then. Hug her. His paws circled around the doe and he allowed her to do the same and they embraced a little longer before reluctantly parting. Nick wished that that moment could last longer but at least his rabbit was now calmer.

 _Wait. My? No, Nick you…. Is there any point in hiding it now? I'm probably going to be shocked to death soon._ Nick sighed as he locked eyes with Judy. I'm so going to regret admitting it when the time comes but duty calls.

"Let's go Carrots. We can't stop now, can we?"

She nodded and they raced around the city, meeting with other officers from other precincts along the way and their own friends from their precinct. Judy used more walls to dart the terrorists with more accuracy and Nick met them head first and quickly darted all of them with expertise. With another hour of darting and knocking out all the terrorists were then brought to their jail cells. Unfortunately, the collars could not be forcefully removed as it shocked them just as Nick said it would. All was well when the collar stopped sending Nick shocks and Judy eagerly jumped onto him with glee. Unknown to the fox tod Judy had made another decision in her heart. She didn't want to hesitate anymore, not when the threat of losing him still hung above his head. After the terrorists were jailed chief Bogo called all of his officers to the precinct only to tell them that they had the rest of the day off. Some cheered and others just tiredly went home. Before he went Judy held his paw and he stopped.

"What's up Carrots? You need something."

"Yeah, about that. Could you come with me to my apartment please?"

Nick curiously nodded as they went to her apartment, grabbing some coffee and snacks along the way.

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 **A/N: How did I do? Average I hope. This may not be one of the best chapters nor the longest but, hey, I just gotta get it out there. It's my first time writing action so don't be to harsh, kay?**

 ***Munch***

 **Well, I'm eating my breakfast while doing this so I had to add a snack at the end... Maybe I should make it my goal. At every end of the chapter I'll have to add that at least someone is eating or snacking in the chapter... Tell me if that's a good idea if I get no reviews about this or reviews saying it's a bad idea then I guess I'll be sticking to the norm. Until next time! Chao~**


	7. Chapter 7: Crossing the line together

**A/N: Heya folks! I think it's about time I put those lovebirds together don't you think? Well, here it is. Finally our two lovebirds will cross the line and be partners for life! Now, presenting~ *drum rolls* *cymbals clash!* THE 7TH CHAPTER!**

 ***Cough***

 **I'm way too hyped right now, so sorry. *Smiles sheepishly* Enjoy!**

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Chapter 7: Crossing the line together

They arrived at the apartment and Judy was tense. She didn't want to keep it to herself anymore, she loved Nick and she wasn't waiting for the last moment to tell him. She wouldn't wait until he was already long gone to realize that she should've told him earlier, it would be to late then. But her determination wavered slightly at the thought that Nick may not return her feelings. _Get a grip, Judy! You've to do it, you may lose him soon enough so at the very least just confess. You can't do it when he's gone!_ She scolded herself and peeked at the fox tod relaxing on her couch. She was going to do it, she had to. She steeled her resolve and marched towards him. The fox tod was a little surprised by the tense expression Judy wore on her face and tensed a little. What did she want to talk about? Did he do something wrong without himself noticing? Or did she want to ask him to take leave, worrying he might not be able to handle the situation he was in? The last thought struck him hard. If that was the case then it meant that Judy didn't have enough faith in him. Then what about the trust that they shared? Was it just him who thought they shared equal trust and faith in each other? He would stand his ground, resist doing what she said if that was the case.

Judy walked up to him and breathed deeply, it had to be now or hold back until he was gone. Only a possibility but still, she would do it and it had to be now. She stared into his emerald orbs and saw him tensed. They stared at each other for a moment and Nick visibly tensed as Judy started to speak, expecting the worse that he imagined.

"Nicholas Piberius Wilde. I love you."

Blunt. Too blunt. Judy winced at her attempt of a confession. She tried to say it again but in a more… less stiff way when she saw the expression on Nick's face. A very rare face of astonishment. He was rendered utterly speechless as he stared at the bunny in front of him. his body frozen in place. He brain had short-circuited for a moment as he tried to gather what she had just said. Judy Hopps, the bunny he was in love with had just declared she loved him! He felt a smile slowly spread across his face and he couldn't help himself. He picked her up and kissed her happily. Judy was surprised at the sudden development but slowly closed her eyes at the bliss she felt when his muzzle connected with hers. They enjoyed the moment before Nick pulled away, allowing Judy to finally breathe. He caressed her cheeks as tears of joy rolled down his face.

"You… really love me?" Judy smiled softly as she relished in his touch.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Nick was so happy he felt like he could just sprout wings and fly! He felt light and happiness took over his features. He was on cloud nine.

"I-I… I love you too. So much…"

They exchanged sweet kisses as they embraced, losing track of time. By the time they decided to stop it was already midnight. They decided that they would call some pizza to eat as they had completely forgotten to eat and were now starving. The pizza arrived relatively soon and they ate in comfortable silence for a while before Judy spoke up.

"So…. Does this mean that we're a couple now?" Nick smirked and nuzzled her.

"Yup. We're together now Carrots. We've crossed the line together and no one will be able to stop us." Judy chuckled softly as Nick smiled happily, wrapping his tail around her protectively. Judy combed through his fluffy tail with her claws and continue to finish of her share pizza. They freshened up afterwards and Nick decided to stay over for the night. Since they had sleepovers at each other's apartment for movie night every weekend he had clothes and necessities here at her apartment just like Judy had at his. They snuggled together and started to talk, about the time they fell in love with each other, the time they realized their love blossomed, the fantasies they had about each other. Anything they kept a secret from the other really. Of course, there was no missing Nick's snarky comments and sometimes terrible puns in between and Judy most definitely had to toss back equally snarky comments and just like they playfully bickered and shared their blissful moment that night.

Morning came too quickly for them and they grumbled when they had to get up even earlier than usual when Judy suddenly recalled they had work and woke up the ever-sleepy Nick and reminded him that he didn't have his uniform over at her house. Nick rushed back to his apartment as fast as his could and met with Judy at the café as usual to get some breakfast and coffee. They decided that they would keep being a couple to themselves from the precint for the moment so that they wouldn't be so distracted and focus on the case at hand. Finding the masterminds behind the full-blown attack the day before was their highest priority. The officers were unfortunately late for work and assigned parking duty by their pissed chief. Today of all days the sun had decided to blast its full glory on the city and the streets were literally smoking in the heat. Judy felt like a roasted bunny and sweat fell from her brow as she quickly worked on the never-ending number of cars that their owners thought that it was a good idea to just leave the ticket to expire. As both partners worked it turned into a competition to see who could write the most tickets in an hour with the winner, as expected, was Judy. Instead of sulking and grumbling to himself like he usually did when she won he held a small smile on his muzzle, proud that his partner and no mammal else was his girlfriend.

They day ended when they sun had when down and temperatures went down to a tolerable level and the pair left the station happily after satisfying their chief with over 800 tickets written. They didn't want to part but tomorrow they would see each other again and neither could stay over at the other's since they didn't have any uniforms put over at each other's apartments like their casual clothes and necessities. When Nick was back at his apartment he already missed his bunny, thinking about her and didn't notice that an elderly fox was in his house. Only when he walked close enough to the couch did he realize that there was a very unwelcomed mammal there. The mammal turned around and looked at him, his dull red fur had evidently had started to turn grey from age.

"Hello there, son."

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 **A/N: And~ how did you like that? May not be the most unique and ideal way to confess but I happens... I think. I've never really seen anyone confess so I'm not too sure. If someone tells me to change it and it's a good idea then you better believe that I _will_ change it. But for now I'll let it be. This is the first time writing about a confession and kissing scenes so please go easy on me in the reviews if you have any. Any who have good ideas to change how the confess? Tell me and I just might use the idea to change things up and make a even better confession. Thanks to you guys, girls, ladies and gentlemen who have read this. Until next time. Au revoir~**


	8. Chapter 8: Together

**A/N: Phew. I finished this chapter on time thank goodness. While this may be a short chapter I made this specially to reveal a bit... or maybe more than a little about Nick's past. So nothing much promised but at least now you know Nick's history! Banzai! This really took me a little longer than I thought but grab some snacks and I hope you enjoy this little insight.**

 **Oh, and for those of you who have read this the first time I'm glad to let you know I have edited it so that I involved a little of what happened at work for the both of them just in case you were wondering what happened there. Sorry about that cause did this was done in a rush so I had little time to actually think through about what I was writing. But nevertheless the chapter is done so I probably won't be editing this if I'm lucky enough to not miss anything out.**

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Chapter 8: Together

"What are you doing here dad?" Nick hissed. Great, a dampener to his mood. He wished with all his might that Judy was here just to be with him. The elderly fox held up a bottle of beer and chuckled, standing up.

"I just came to visit my son. What else is there? But look at you, all grown up now. Last I remember you was when you were still a kit."

"Dad." He spat. "What. Do you want? Last time I checked you had left me and mother all on our own. SWAMPED in a 20,000,000-dollar debt and now you come back? After all that has ended and the debt is done? What the heck do you want now?!"

Nick shouted at the top of his lungs, his fury from the past back, raging like it did when his dad left him and his mother. He still vividly remembered that night, his mother sobbing, him holding his mother, his father walking out the door.

"See ya later son."

That was what he had said when he left. 'See ya later son.' If only he was a little older, then he could've understood then what was happening. The very man who left his family because of debt had come back. A beer bottle crashed over his head, blood was gushing but his rage didn't end, not just yet. He growled and ignored the pain, eyeing the broken bottle in his father's hand before launching himself to attack. He vividly remembered all the times he had with his father. It wasn't good ones. His father had beaten him, tortured him, mocked him, and he did it all drunk or not. His mother was not spared from it either and that fuelled his anger more. He held the man by the neck, almost strangling him when he remembered his beloved bunny. His partner, his love, his light and his life. Judy wouldn't want him to kill, especially a family member, no anyone for that matter. He left his father breathe, walking towards the door to unlock it.

"What now son? Too scared to kill me? Well you should be!" his father made a lunge at him but he dodged and the elderly fox ended up outside the door that Nick had opened.

"Scared huh…... No, I never feared you. Now scram, before I change my mind and arrest you myself. You already committed a crime, you know?" he scowled at the elderly fox on the floor and slammed the door in his face. Nick felt the anger wash away and now swayed a little to get to his first aid kit. He bandaged himself up and went to change and clean himself off. As the water from the shower head pelted down on him he knew he couldn't keep it from Judy, not with a bandage wrapped around his head yet again. Ironically, his father had hit the same spot as one of the bombers did to knock him out. It stung badly and he sighed and got out of the shower, if he didn't sleep now he'd probably be a mess tomorrow. He didn't want to be sent home early tomorrow and miss spending the day with his bunny so he went to bed and slept as soon as his head hit the pillow, keeping an ear out just in case his father tried to sneak in again. Fatigue quickly caught up to him and he fell right to sleep.

The next morning, he woke up early as usual and yawned, wincing in pain as he felt the injury on his head. Ah, he wasn't going to escape Judy he just knew it. He put on his uniform and was happy to see that his father had left. Before he left he thought of a good idea to keep his father from entering again. He smirked as he started to move some things around. After he was done, he smiled, satisfied with his work. He hummed as he locked the door and happily made his way to the café to meet his favorite bunny. As he had predicted Judy had worriedly questioned him about his injury and had checked him all over for other injuries.

"Alright, slow down Carrots. Why don't we go get our coffee first before I talk?"

Judy had reluctantly agreed and they went in, ordering their coffees and they sat, sipping the caffeine down.

"So…. What happened to you? You aren't hurt anywhere else, are you? You better not be hiding any other injuries from me." Judy eyed him sternly and he smiled, touched that his girlfriend was worried for him. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Well…. To be honest. My…. Dad visited me last night. Or more like snuck into my house." He scoffed. Judy made a look with a tilt of her head. He hid his smirk, that was so cute.

"And, um, well, I got a little mad since…. He had left me and my mother in debt when I was a kit. 20,000,000-dollars in fact and I just, you know. Asked him why he came back and he didn't answer before smashing a beer bottle into my head."

"That's…. horrible…."

Judy stretched out her paw and touched his cheek. He held her paw there with his and enjoyed the sensation of it there. He knew she cared about him as much as he cared about her, and that made him extremely happy. His tail swished back and forth and for the first time he didn't care at all how people looked at him. At them. He slowly let that paw go after some time and grinned when he saw her flushed face, her blush evident over her grey fur. He smirked and got up.

"Wait! Nick, where are you going?"

"To work of course. Come on, don't wanna be lectured by old buffalo butt, do you?"

She giggled and followed her boyfriend, entwining her hands with his, making him smile and hide his bashfulness with a smirk, glad his red fur hid his blush.

The day got a little more noisier as officers of the precinct started to question him of his injury. Nick could only awkwardly laugh, he really didn't want to share the experience with his father and get them all sullen so he could only plaster on a smile. Judy noticed Nick's distress and had connected the dots and help him lie his way out of it, especially Benjamin who was more than just a little worried and was almost convinced to drag Nick to the infirmary until Judy calmed him down, saying that Nick was alright. After the same tiring experience in the bullpen they gladly retreated to the paperwork need to be done, happy the officers outside didn't come barging into their office to start asking questions. Well, most of them at least but they managed. When Benjamin had barged in and, once again, was worried for Nick and close to being convinced to drag him into the infirmary Nick and Judy shared a tired but exasperated looks with each other and Nick allowed Judy to usher the worried cheetah out.

After work, he asked Judy out to the movies and she gladly agreed, happy that they could spend time together for a little longer before heading home, a wide grin on her face the whole evening. Nick smiled at her grin and steeled his resolve, no matter what they faced, they faced it together. What he didn't know was that Judy had thought the same that night, sealing the silent promise that they would overcome any obstacle in their way, together.

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 **A/N: Now you know little of Nick's past and I assure you there's a reason I did this chapter like this. You'll be seeing more of Nick's dad after this and along with him Nick's mother will also appear. Again, I apologize for the rushed chapter here I didn't have much time before I had to rush of to send my brother to his tuition center and I swear it is not near where I live. Well, that's enough foreshadowing and ranting and apologizing for now. Until next time. Chao~**


	9. Chapter 9: The past

**A/N: Okay, I did say I would put Nick's parents in the story but I haven't thought about how to introduce them into the story yet so for now so to make up for it I've put in a little more about Nick's past here. Sorry if you're disappointed at how lame I am for not thinking through, can't say I ever do but for now this will be sort of like a substitute, half side story for the story.**

 **On another note for those who couldn't make sense of this chapter I'm really sorry! I've edited it, promise! I've changed it a little bit and... Hopefully it's up to standards. To those who just started to read this there was a little mistake on my part so I had to correct it. Anyways, please enjoy!**

Chapter 9: The past

After the movie Nick had stayed over at Judy's since the next day was a day off. They snuggled on the couch for a while, enjoying the warmth they provided each other. Nick smiled his bunny, happy he didn't need to suppress his feeling for her any longer. He stifled a laugh at the memory of her confession, she was so stiff and nervous that it was cute. Judy looked up with him quizzically.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing Carrots. It's nothing."

Judy stared a second longer before shrugging and snuggling back into his warm chest before shooting up again and facing him. Nick stared at her in surprise.

"What is it Carrots?" she looked as if she was battling with something in her mind before she turned to him determination.

"Nick. I want you to tell me more about your family." His eyes widened with surprise. Judy wanted to take back her words, swallow it and never say it at all in the first place. But she couldn't go back on it now, she wanted to know more about him. At least that's how she thought until she saw his surprise, her nose twitched in anticipation as he watched him. She could see the gears working in her boyfriend's head.

"And why do you want to know?" she breathed in deeply.

"I…. I don't want secrets between us anymore. I want to know more about you… Please?"

She added the last bit as an afterthought but regardless she knew her request was still unreasonable. She clenched her fist, ready to take back what she said.

"Okay. I'll tell you."

She looked at him. Shocked. She saw his soft smile and the nervousness left her body immediately. She couldn't help but snuggle into his chest further, hearing the loving growl she heard from his chest.

"Thank you, thank you, Nick!" Nick chuckled at his girlfriend's enthusiasm.

"But don't tell anyone else alright? It's…. It'll be pretty awkward for me…"

Judy nodded, knowing what he meant. She knew he wasn't one to respond well to mammals giving him sympathy or pity, he had lived most of his con-artist without it so he wasn't used to it. She purred as he used his claws to gently scratch the base of her right ear. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the pleasant sensation before opening one eye to look at the tod.

"Will you tell me now?" Nick smirked.

"Only if you give me a kiss." She pouted as she saw him smirk devilishly. She mulled it over before doing just that. Nick was taken aback, he had meant it as a joke and hadn't expected that she would comply. But he wouldn't miss the chance to make out with her so he enjoyed her small and soft lips on his.

After kissing her some more Nick slowly told her about his past. He had lived a happy and peaceful life until he was six, excluding the time he was muzzled when he went to join the Junior Ranger Scouts and his parents dotted on him a lot. His father was a banker then and his mother a teacher, they were a stable until his father's bank got robbed and the bank shut down as the citizens couldn't trust them anymore, saying that the security was to lax, making the bank go bankrupt. His father then tried to look for another job, a painter, a clerk, a janitor, the jobs were getting worse and worse each time, the pay he received was almost not enough to help them get by. His mother had taken more overtime then, trying hard to earn more money to keep them feed and well. It only lasted until his father had enough of how he could only get less then decent jobs and the pay was decreasing every time. That was when he started to drink, started to vent out his frustrations through violence. He would be very hard on Nick, wanting him to get the best grades, the top of the class. But even then, Nick wasn't spared from the constant tongue lashing, mocking and violence from his father. His mother would try to protect and defend him, taking some of the hits herself but this father would just push her out of the way and go berserk. Slashing at Nick with his claws though Nick dodged so most of it ended up ruining the furniture. Punching him, kicking him, slapping him, and insulting him constantly throughout the day. His father stopped working and stayed at home or went to the bar to drink and cause mayhem. If there was no one at home he would just drink and rant to no one in particular, just the air. This went on until he was twelve, when his mother had enough and took Nick, packed their things and ran away. She had prepared a new house without his father knowing and that was where they lived for a few months. It was a time when he felt happy again, indulging in simple pleasures occasionally. It had unfortunately ended when his mother had fell ill. The doctor had diagnosed that she was in the third stage of cancer. That she didn't have very long left before she entered the fourth stage. They didn't have the money to pay for the surgery and that was when he decided to become a con artist and started to hustle mammals for money, desperately trying to save his mother's life. But no, he was too late. Before he could save up enough money to save his mother she had died. It had been a few more months since they had discovered she had cancer. She had tried to go to work without his knowing, it had quickened the process and she had died while she was trying to go to work. He had cried as he saw his mother in her casket, cried when he visited her tombstone where she rested. He didn't have anything left, nothing to support him emotionally and he started to build walls around his heart. He had found Finnick and he had become his emotional support, his best and only friend. He continued to hustle mammals to feed himself and kept himself healthy enough to continue his life. He didn't really want to live, but he didn't want to die either, so his life was dull and he had skimmed though it like turning the pages of a book.

Nick had paused for a minute, cuddling the crying doe into his chest. He felt bad to make her cry but knew she would want to continue to the end. He took another deep but shaky breath and continued his story.

"But that wasn't all. I found out that the person I had spent so much of my time with. Ever since I was a kit. Was actually my mother's twin sister Vanessa. She and my mother traded places since she fell for Vanessa's husband, and her my father. Their parents had betrothed each of them to a tod they thought suitable for each of them without consent from the two and so, who I saw die that day was my mother's twin sister. I only found out when I went to pay my respects at the cemetery that I saw the name on the stone wasn't my mother's. I knew her name but yet I had mistaken who my mother was. I felt deceived, played a fool. I dug deeper into it and that's when I learnt that they were twins and it just clicked. She wasn't my mother. Mother wasn't dead. But I... I was dead inside already. I felt pathetic, played, and had already lost everything but the house, so I continued to con mammals to survive. I didn't want to live, nor did I want to die. So I spent that time lingering in between. I searched for my actual mother and she apologized a lot. But, even though I had found her I still felt empty, hollow, and then... " Nick smiled slightly, his memory right then focused on the first time he met Judy.

"And then, I met you. And…. Everything, just seemed a little brighter." Nick kissed her ears and nuzzled her, earning a soft chuckle from her. He smiled down at her. Meeting this bunny had changed his world, changed him. He recalled how he felt then. Entranced by her beautiful amethyst eyes and captured by how positive she was. It was then when he first fell in love with her. She smiled up at him, kissing his cheek. Allowing him to wrap his arms around her lovingly. She was glad that he had told her of his past, it just showed how much he trusted her. She snuggled back into his chest and sighed, a final tear flowing down her cheek rubbed away by the tod.

"I'm glad you told me Nick." He smiled and scratched the base of her ear again.

"Sure thing, Carrots. Just remember your promise to keep it a secret, okay?"

"Only if you kiss me." She teased, smiling devilishly at him. He chuckled and carried her to the bed before kissing her.

"Heh, is that enough?" he asked. She giggled before she dragged his head down, his lips meeting hers.

"Nope."

They spent the rest of the night like that before they finally fell asleep.

 **A/N: Just a little heads up I might be a little late for the next update cause I'll be busy doing my have-not-been-done holiday homework before I get in trouble with my teachers. My only wish right now is that they didn't give me any homework to do for the June holidays. Anyways, that's all I got for now and I'll try my best to make the next chapter interesting. Until next time. Chao~**


	10. Chapter 10: Shocking news

**STOP! Guys, I know if you don't want to read the notes and I swear I won't do it again so please just read this one at least. (Well, can't promise I won't do it again but please, this is important.)**

 **A/N: Guys, girls, ladies and gentlemen. I have forgotten to mention this in the previous chapters and so I will now. Nightfuryfan95, this user has been copying and posting the stories from amazing authors on wattpad and gaining all the glory meant for the authors who _really_ deserve it. Guys, just help them out and point out this prick and try to stop her from copying more stories and stealing more stories from amazing authors like Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps and Landra Wolf who have written amazing stories and have been stolen by Nightfuryfan95. On behalf of these authors I ask you guys to help them out and try to stop that prick. Ugh, I'm getting mad just thinking about her.**

 **Now, I'll stop rambling so you guys can read the story.**

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Chapter 10: Shocking news

The next morning was even worse than the last time the chief called them up. Sure, chief Bogo called them up, again, but this time it was in the afternoon. They had called Nick to the station and Judy had tagged along with him. They quickly arrived and Benjamin told them to wait outside chief Bogo's office. Nick's mind wondered as he sat on the bench outside the chief's office. It was most possibly the longest five minutes he had ever had to experience since he was a kit. Unlike the past there was nothing to do, nothing to distract him…. _Nothing? To distract me?_ His eyes shifted to the equally bored rabbit whose powerful leg was pounding the floor impatiently with an annoyed look on her muzzle. A sly grin creep onto his face and he readied his paws. A second passed and Judy was perfectly distracted with the chief's office door when she felt paws crawl all over her and she held her paws to her muzzle. Trying to stifle the giggles as the fox tickled her, her effort was all but useless and her laughter burst out and echoed through the halls. Curious officers peeking around the corner would see a fox tickling a bunny who could not, for the life of her, stop laughing. Judy squirmed and tried to wriggle out of his grasp but had no strength to even move now and could only submit to him in a fit of laughter.

Nick smiled and grinned at his giggling and squirming companion until he decided that his bunny had had enough. He abruptly stopped and had left the doe wheezing for breath.

"Had enough fun?"

The tod quickly turned his head to the door to find the buffalo they were waiting for waiting in the doorway. He turned sheepish as he helped his bunny up. Her legs shook a little and it was still a little hard to breathe but Judy managed to hang in there and had used her bit of strength to walk with the help of Nick. The doe then found herself breathless again, this time Nick was as breathless as her. But not for a good reason. They were utterly speechless to the news that chief Bogo had just revealed.

"Did… You just say that…. My _parents_ were just arrested for… being Jones and Carla's associates?! My mother and father?"

The chief nodded grimly. He had just told them that Nick's parents were now married to mammals' other than their species, all four of the mammals of the two couples were the associates and underlings of Jones and Carla. His mother and her husband, George, a cheetah, had been found breaking up couples throughout the rainforest district. In some cases, also inflicting violence and threats to make them break up, they had also killed quite a handful of couples. They were charged for inflicting bodily harm, and murder. His father and his wife, Vicky, a wolf, were doing the same. If not worse. They immediately dived into violence and even threaten to hurt the couple's families if they didn't break up. From the investigation, there was one very small pattern that didn't escape Judy's eyes.

"They're all…. The same."

"What is Carrots?"

"All these couples, both partners are the same species."

"What?" Nick scanned the file that Bogo had issued them about his parents, their marriage partners, and the couples they were attacking.

"You're right! But…. Why?"

"That, I don't know. But at least now we have a clue."

The buffalo huffed. Judy was right, there was a pattern. But first they needed to interview the victims who lived and the witnesses who had seen it. The buffalo leaned forward and grunted. The masterminds needed to be stopped soon, or the whole of Zootopia would fall into ruin.

"Officer Hopps, Wilde. Go interview the victims and witnesses tomorrow. Now go home and enjoy the day off while you can."

The pair saluted and rushed out of the office, Judy walking next to Nick as they discussed about the case.

"This is getting more serious than we thought. This isn't a simple terrorism case."

"If only it was…"

Judy looked at her partner, her boyfriend. He looked forlorn. She knew he was having a hard time dealing with the fact that his parents were now criminals and the fact that they had exerted violence to innocent citizens as well. His eyes lost a little of their shine that she loved. _I have to cheer him up!_ She smirked at the irony, the last time it was her who was upset. Now he was the one getting upset. All the more that she returned the favour by doing the same. She smiled and dragged Nick by his paw and rushed out of the station, waving to Benjamin before leaving.

"Woah! Hey Carrots! What's the rush?"

They stopped just before they reached the bottom of the stairs from the station.

"Returning a favor. When I was upset before you cheered me up. Now it's my turn. Come on! Let's go and play before it's back to work tomorrow!"

Nick was once again dragged by his paw and he smiled. He would've fallen in love with her just then if he wasn't yet. But now he loved his sweet bunny more. They spent the rest of the day doing as they pleased, seeing the sights, catching a movie, enjoying ice cream in the hot climate of Sahara Square, ice skating at Tundra town. They laughed whole heartedly that day and it was a day Nick wasn't going to forget in a while, or rather, his whole life! It was the most fun he had since so long ago when he was a kit. He smiled at his bunny and chuckled as she once again fell butt first on the ice and tried to get up.

"Need a little help there, Carrots?" She pouted and it was just the cutest thing. She extended a hand up to him.

"Are you helping me up or not?"

He chuckled. Really now, this bunny was going to the death of him! She was so adorable acting like a kit.

"Sure, sure. Up we go."

He hefted her up and they continued to skate, Nick mostly teaching Judy how to. Judy was embarrassed at the fact that she had never skated before, but was happy that her fox had seemed to have forgotten about the case at least for now. She smiled, if he was happy, she was happy. _Yeah. That's just really, sappy but I can't help feeling this way!_ She giggled at herself and continued to listen to 'Coach Nick' as he guided her on the basics of skating.

After the day was done and the sky did them no favour of giving them more time to spend with each other they parted ways and went home. Judy smiled as she entered her apartment and changed into her night clothes, humming as she hit the bed. Tomorrow was another day. She grinned, the first time she said that was the night of the second day she arrived here. The chief assigning her to parking duty and all. It was another reminder of how far she had come. She smiled fondly back at her memories of the missing mammals case. The day she met Nick, the time she almost lost Nick along with the time he forgave her for her mistakes, the day they exposed Bellweather at the museum. That was an adventure she would never forget, most importantly it was the time she fell in love with her fox.

Smiling fondly, she was lulled to sleep by her precious memories of the past. Nick was the same, recalling when he fell in love with his bunny, reminiscing about the times he had with her, the cases they solved together, and his most recent favourite, when she confessed her love to him. It was the best day of his life! She was so stiff and nervous that she was almost adorable. He chuckled to himself as he fell asleep.

The next morning, Judy was energetically, almost hopping, towards the cruiser. They had a job to do and she was excited as it had been a while since there was something other than paperwork to do for once. Nick, followed closely behind her, inwardly groaning and whining about how fast his bunny was. Once the they got on the cruiser Judy quickly flipped through the files they had received from Benjamin this morning.

"Okay. First, we're visiting Polly Harvest and John Gensler. An antelope couple who survived attacks from…. Your father and Vicky."

She squeezed Nick's paw when she saw him flinch at the mention of his father. Her heart ached to see him this way, even a little. He gladly squeezed her paw back and held a shaky smile. She reassured him and gave him a little peck on the cheek, discreetly of course, before starting the cruiser, all throughout the day they had interviewed various couples who had survived from the attacks from either criminal couple and witnesses alike. They were visually very fidgety and squeamish when they saw Nick. She assured them he wouldn't bite, as plainly obvious, and they relaxed a little when she said that, not totally though. After they clocked out of work they were not physically tired but mentally so. Judy just tired of the victims and witnesses being wary of Nick even though she knew they couldn't do anything about it. Nick on the other hand was tired from withholding his desire to squirm and suggest going outside to escape the wary stares from the victims and witnesses alike. He knew Judy would insist that he stayed and he had to admit that his bunny was one very stubborn bunny.

He smiled at the thought and distracted himself from his tired mental state and just stared at her from where he was behind her as she walked. He admired her soft ears, fur and her deep amethyst pools. Her figure was lean and at the same time he knew of her beauty which she had always had unintentionally hidden. He had once saw her very much hidden bust when she had removed her raid gear after they had to deal with a raid of mammals who was very strongly opposing the government accepting a panther as the new prime minister. Gosh, an hour of that was bad enough but no. They had to deal with two hours of it until the angry mammals agreed to let up. Luckily, things were settled after a while and it was a blessing for the officers. They all celebrated then, happy they wouldn't need to deal with anymore raids for the time being. Nick chuckled at the memory and Judy looked at him with confusion painted across her face.

"What?"

"Nothing to worry your-"

"Don't you say it!"

 _How did she know I was going to say cute? Oh well, better not make the bunny angry. Last thing I need today is a pit in my gut._ He held up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay. I won't say it."

"Good."

Judy turned around in a huff and Nick silently chuckled. His bunny was so cute when she was mad to! He won't tell her now though, not yet anyways. He smirked and trailed after the bunny until they reached where they would part ways. After saying their goodbyes, as usual, Nick watched as the doe walked around the corner before continuing his way home. Oh, how he wanted to just dive into his warm and-. He stopped short of thinking and rushed into his home. Groaning, he hurriedly packed his valuables. _Well, at least I don't need to pay the rent for this month._ He thought to himself and cringed at himself. _Focus Nick! Just get your things, run out, and then you can joke about it, dumb fox!_ The tod scurried about like his apartment, gathering the things he needed most before running out. Finally, he heard the sound he was listening for ring out. It could probably be heard from the next neighborhood. Nick grimaced a little, wiping away a small drop of sweat on his brow.

"Well, that was a _blast_."

* * *

 **A/N: Can you guess what just happened? If you do, then I can only give you a clap on the back and a word of congrats cause I can only offer you that. Seriously. But don't be a spoiler and just lay low for now. For those who haven't figured it out it will obviously be revealed in the next chapter!**

 **Okay guys, one last thing. Please keep what I said before the story in mind because these amazing authors really do need your help in stopping this prick. If you know of another user doing the same just try to stop them as well, and as I've said before, who knows, you may be able to stop them! And to you authors who are also writing stories just like these amazing authors then please beware as this might happen if not now maybe in the future so if it happens please, don't deal with it yourself and ask for help. It's better then working alone and then getting hit with all the impact and, who knows, maybe it might be too late to claim your rightful glory after that.**

 **Those who have read both notes for this chapter I thank you guys for reading all my ramblings and warnings and such. I'm sorry that I said a lot before and now and I thank you for your patience and for reading these things I know it can a bit boring so...**

 **I should probably shut up now. So! Thanks for your attention and for reading and until next time! Chao~**


	11. Chapter 11: A new case?

Chapter 11: A new case?

 **A/N: Thanks to you readers who have read the story till this chapter! You guys are my best support to continue this and to be honest I'm real happy with what's done so far! But, I reread this and found a few little typos so I've edited it. Those who came back to reread it or skim through it might notice the slight difference I made and don't worry nothing's changed really.**

 **Those new to this chapter I hope you enjoy it! This is the longest chapter yet and I'm yet to finalize the next one so for now, grab a snack, ready your eyes and enjoy the story.**

Judy stared at the visitor at her door.

"What are you-"

"Look, Carrots, I'm really sorry but I'll explain after you let me in. Okay?"

"What... Never mind. Just come in first."

Judy shooed the soot covered mammal in and he put down his bag next to the couch. She watched as he dug inside to find his clothes to change into. He looked tired, but her curiosity took over.

"Nick. What happened to you?" Nick's hands didn't stop digging into his bag, but his eyes spared a single glance at her. In that short moment, she saw the exhaustion beneath his emerald orbs.

"A fire started at my apartment. It was really big when I got there. I managed to get some of my stuff out of there. And now here I am." The tod stood and went to wash of the soot on him. Judy stared as he disappeared behind the door.

Her thoughts ran a mile a minute as she tried to process what was going on. This seemed too much of a coincidence. Just the other day he was attacked by his own father, now this. Her gut told her that his father was possibly the culprit but she couldn't rule out that it might be someone else that could have done it as well. She heard the water stop flowing and shook her head to wake herself out of her daze. Or at least tried to. Nick walked out, seeming more refreshed as he wore his favorite green Hawaiian t-shirt and purple tie.

"Whew. That felt great. Thanks for letting me in Carrots."

Judy managed to mutter out a small "Your welcome" before she went back into her daze. Worried about Nick and who might've caused the fire, if that was the case. She hoped that it was just an accident, caused by some mammal in the apartment who accidentally tipped a flaming candle onto their flammable curtain or just some gas leak which was accidentally ignited by a lit flame. She hoped with all her heart that was all it was, an accident, a coincidence. Nick saw the worry cloud her eyes. His arms snaked around her and soon Judy found herself trapped in his embrace.

"H-hey, Nick."

"Shhhh. Carrots, you don't need to worry about me. Besides," a smirk snaked up his muzzle. A devilish gleam in his eye made the doe's cheeks heat up from the heat that was creeping up from her neck.

"I'll have to stay with you from now on."

"W-wait a minute! What do you me-" Nick raised a paw over his heart.

"Ouch! You wound me Carrots. Are you saying that I can't stay here?"

"W-wait. I mean, of course you can but-" Nick's soft chuckle made Judy blush, realizing he was just toying with her. She felt Nick's tail also curled around her, making her smile. An idea crossed her mind and she smirked devilishly. _Time for some payback._ She slipped down and before Nick could react she grabbed his tail. Hugging it tightly. She felt the fur on his tail stand on the end, fluffing up.

"C-carrots! What was-"

"Payback." She smirked and enjoying the fluffiness of the tail as she hugged it. Nick stared at her, shocked before he dawned his signature smirk, rivaling Judy's.

"You know what? Two can play this game Fluff." She steeled herself as he readied his claws.

"Ready carrots?" Judy scoffed.

"Always."

The vulpine stared down at his prey, licking his lips. A quiet moment passed, sparks flew….

Just then, a sound of a phone echoed throughout the room. Both stopped staring at each other and Nick reached for the phone in his bag. Pressing the call button, exasperated.

"Hello?... No. Why…"

A look of hurt crossed his face before rage.

"You… Despicable, old…! Don't you dare call again you old fart!" Before he hung up a flash of sadness flashed across his face, but disappeared as fast as it came, replacing it with a slight confusion and fear. Judy when over to hug him, softly purring when Nick started to pet her ears. It was a silent moment. Judy didn't ask for details, with her hearing she could pick out the voice of an old mammal over the phone and if it was who she thought it was then Nick would need her. Nick inhaled deeply, bending down to nuzzle his bunny.

"I'm…. sorry you had to see that Carrots." She snuggled into the warmth of Nick's returned embrace.

"Nah. It's fine Nick. Anything for my fox."

The tod held on to Judy tighter, calming down as he breathed in her lovely scent. Maybe it was because she used to live in BunnyBurrow but she smelled of the fresh greens of a farm. Judy did the same, sniffing his musky scent, it was strangely like violets. Once Nick's breathing slowed and his heartbeat returned to normal Judy slowly pulled away, missing his scent already. But she had something to do, snuggling could wait a while.

"Nick. I know it's not my problem but I want to know what that call was about."

Nick looked at her, saw the concern brimming through her voice, worry shining in her bright eyes. Even if he escaped it now she would probably find out later. And the sooner the better. He inhaled deeply, steeling himself.

"That call, was from my father. He has escaped from jail with his 'wife' and he called me just to tell me that _he_ was the one who burned down my apartment." He spat each word out with malice, resentment, anger. Nick's vision reddened, but he continued nonetheless, not allowing his anger to get the best of him.

"He…. Told me to find him. And my mother. Saying it was urgent. Before I hung up I heard him scream, but it was too late. My fingers, moved on their own. I…. Don't know why he decided to call. Why he asked to me to-"

Judy touched his arm, making him pause for a moment. His speech was starting to merge together, anger made him talk faster, confusion bordered it. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, calming himself once more. He thanked his lucky stars he had such a wonderful girlfriend. If she weren't here he wouldn't have been able to make it this far without diving into darkness. That, would only result in more wounds. His pulse calmed once more and he uttered his last words of explanation softly.

"I don't know…. Why he asked me to find them. It's…. I don't know why he would ask that of me. He sounded like he was in pain before I hung up but I don't know…."

Judy softly kissed his tears away, hoping to comfort him. Nick smiled weakly, his only wish was that he met her earlier. She was his sun, his love, his light, his world, his…. Everything. Just everything. He smiled at her, lovingly nuzzling her again, wrapping his tail protectively around her. The doe relaxed in his embrace and relished in his warmth. Both snuggled together for what seemed an eternity but slowly, Nick decided to pull away. Depriving himself and her from each other's warmth and smirking as a thought to cheer them both occurred to him. He didn't like the idea of leaving her like this. So he plastered on a smirk.

"Now. I believe we still have something to settle." Judy cocked her head to the side, her ears upright and erect tilted along with her, looking at him quizzically.

"What do you- Oh!"

His claws raked softly over her fur as he relentlessly tickled her sides. She tried to stifle her giggles as her sides were attacked.

"Oh… N-nick… STOP THAT! STOP!"

He smirked even more as his bunny squirmed, trying and failing to wiggle out of his grasp. She had tried and again to flail her legs in hopes of stopping him and every time her strength was sucked out of her by the relentless fox. Finally, he decided to allow her to catch her breath. Her chest heaved as she sucked in the air she so desperately needed. Nick smiled down and kissed the exhausted bunny as he sat down on the couch, placing the bunny on his lap.

"You okay Carrots?"

"Yeah…. Just… Need…. To catch…. My breath."

He chuckled as the doe's pulse stared to slow and his tail once again wrapped around them. Judy settled in his lap, letting him cuddle her like a life sized plush toy.

Opening her eyes once more, it had quickly turned from afternoon into night. She got up, from the bed and walked out of the room, greeted with the delicious smell of stew. She walked into the kitchen and found what she was looking for, the vulpine fox. He stood behind the huge pot, stirring its contents with a wooden spoon. He peered over the pot.

"Awake Carrots?"

"Yeah. What's in there though?" Sadness flashed across his features.

"Yeah…. It was my mom's old recipe for stew. Perfect for predator and prey." He chuckled, not his usual aloft chuckle, this one was a sad and distant one. His eyes clouded over slightly, before returning to their normal bright emerald color.

"Hungry yet Carrots?" Before she could answer, her stomach had growled hungrily. They looked at her belly in silence, breaking out into hysterical laughter a moment later.

"Guess that's a yes."

Nick picked up the ladle and poured the stew into two bowls and set them down on the small table, they sat facing each other and enjoyed the comfortable silence as they ate, Judy hummed, tasting such a delicious stew for the first time. Once the dishes were washed the rest of the night was uneventful, sleep quickly followed and Nick found himself humming a soft tune, smiling as for once there wasn't much to do. A small part of him was bored, used to a life of action that a cop had unless it was a day off. But, it was a rare chance to snuggle and spend time with his mate so he didn't complain.

The next morning was a greeting to a boring day, it was the peace they wanted but it didn't feel right, didn't…. smell…. right? Nick and Judy were on a case that morning, the heat of Sahara Square even worse than yesterday, the cold in Tundra Town despicably lower than before even as they sat in their cruiser, designed to help them cope with the weathers of Zootopia. Or so it seemed as the two went to the warehouses located at the port of the city. Judy had never seen the port before, much less had time to tour most of the city with the little time she had to stare in wonder as she got a glimpse of the sea with all its tranquil and calm glory as the waves lapped at the shore of the beach. Once the warehouses were in sight the pair couldn't help but hold their noses as they got off the cruiser. The place smelled very fishy, literally and metaphorically. Occasional thumps of something hitting the walls of the warehouses emitted from the place, making Judy's skin crawl under her fur, but she controlled her sense of discomfort and disgust, they had things to do. The sooner they found evidence, the sooner they could leave.

The case was a simple one, weird noises occasionally coming from the warehouses whether it was morning, noon or night the noises came unexpectedly and spooked the residents that lived in the area. Especially the fishermen who went out to sea every day in their fishing boats. They had filed in the most complaints and the ZPD were tired of putting them off as report after report came in about the complaints of the fishermen who wanted them to fix the problem. the ZPD could have sent officers other than their best and most famous duo but another case had happened to show up. There was a kidnapping and murder case in the area, almost like the case with Nick's father and mother but the slight difference and that was that all kinds of animals were being kidnapped from a fully-grown elephant to the smallest otter kit. Many have gone missing for a long time or appear dead after three days in some of the warehouses. Judy's ears picked up the sound again, a thump on the wall. It came from the warehouse to her right. The red paint of the warehouses was peeling, obviously not tended to, revealing a fair amount of the original brown color of the structure. Nick sniffed, inhaling the smell of rusted metal. He had almost stepped away from looking for clues about the fictional monsters rumored to have been housed by these filthy structures when something clicked in this mind. This wasn't the smell of metal. It was the smell of blood.

He moved, closer to the warehouse Judy was standing in front of. She seemed confused as her ears faced towards it. Judy could only barely make out the soft words of conversation carried out in that place. The sound of whining, muffled screams and faint but wicked laughter. It was hard to make out who the mammals in there were as their voices were slightly muffled, she could only hear certain words.

"These…kids…. pathetic…. smack 'em…. obey."

She scrunched her nose, her mate noticing her discomfort placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What is it Judy?" She heard a laugh ring, and another thump sound. It made her suspicions bloom and grow.

"Something's happening in there, Nick. Probably the cause of all the weird noises."

Nick's ear flicked when there was another thump.

"Probably."

He plastered on a smirk and took her hand, which she smiled at as they went towards the peeling warehouse. The metallic smell only grew as they stepped towards it, Nick could now confirm it was indeed blood that cause the stench. Opening the door ever so slightly she gasped as she saw a crowd of kits, being beaten up one by one by a massive black panther. The panther would occasionally wipe the splattered blood of the kits from his eyepatch over his left eye. Uncaring for the several cuts and wounds he made with his whip. Not bothering to even bandage the several whipped kits. He didn't seem to notice the flicker of light emitted from the open gap as he continued to whip them, smiling as if seeing them hurt caused him great pleasure. Judy shivered and took a step back, allowing Nick to support her as her feet became unsteady. Nick frowned at his terrified mate, whatever was inside it had been horrifying judging by her expression. He peeked in and immediately saw why, holding back the urge to fling open the doors and shoot the panther. His night-vision saw what Judy hadn't noticed, there were several other mammals in the room, big and small. But there was one similarity, they all wore happy and smug smiles as they watch the kits writhe in pain, they might have possibly seen them bleed and die. Nick had seen the pictures about the kidnap and murders of mammals in the area to know that all the murdered mammals had all died of blood loss or had been strangled to death. Whip marks could be seen on all of them despite the difference in species, size and gender.

He looked at the kits, they wore something he could recognise without a doubt. They all wore shock collars. Unfortunately for him, they were too hidden in the kits' fur to see if it was the exact same one he had around his neck. He felt a strong grip at his arm and turned to see Judy recovering from the gruesome sight. He closed the gap silently and pet her ears, scratching the base of her right ear.

"You okay Carrots?" he whispered, trying to soothe the bunny of the rest of her fears.

"Yeah…. I'm alright now."

She was fine. She was a strong bunny. She couldn't be deterred easily. She looked at Nick with newfound determination.

"We've got to stop him."

"Them." Nick corrected. "That panther's not the only one in there. There are several others in there as well. Let's just call for back up first."

Judy nodded and radioed in Benjamin, the cheetah reassuring her that back up would be there in a few minutes. After she put the radio back on its holder she sighed. Replaying what she saw in her mind. She was a strong bunny. She couldn't back down now. Not ever. She was a cop. And one of the best at that, so she had to stay strong for the people of Zootopia. She couldn't be scared by something like that. She internally wrestled with her fears and doubts, trying to convince herself that she would be fine. A paw landed on her, then another. Then both paws coiled around her, a familiar and reassuring warmth surrounded her.

"It's gonna be alright Carrots. I'm here for you." He pulled back a bit and she saw him smirk. "Besides, what's a boyfriend who can't protect his girl?"

He wiggled his brows and she couldn't help but giggle at his attempt to soothe her. Her worries were blown away by him, he made her secure. She found comfort in his embrace and his silver-tongue was a trait that was part of who he was. She loved him with all her heart and kissed him timidly on the lips. Her cheeks had turned red and she could only hope her fur was enough to hide it. She looked at the fox and obviously her hopes were for naught, he had noticed the blush and it made him smirk wider.

"What's this. Are you still embarrassed? Even after we've done it so many times already?" She punched him lightly in the chest, making him laugh.

They pulled apart quickly when they heard sirens, back up was here. The officers surrounded the warehouse, ensuring that no one could escape before they flung the doors open.

"ZPD! You're under arrest!... Huh?"

Instead of the blood-filled room of kits and brutal mammals the warehouse was filled with wooden creates. There was absolutely nothing but.

"Hopps, Wilde. You sure you two saw those mammals and kits in here? Cause'…. There's nothing here but wooden creates." Judy rushed inside in disbelief. Almost bumping into the officer in front of the doors.

"No. This can't be! They were here, I'm sure of it!"

"Well, if they were here they sure didn't stay long."

Nick held Judy's shoulder, and they looked at the empty room with disbelief. Nick was sure that something was afoot. He was perfectly awake and so was Judy and he knew what he saw was no illusion. But then again, this wasn't an illusion either. _What's going on?_ That thought was in his mind the whole ride back to the precinct, Judy was even able to see the gears working in her fox's head. Something was afoot, and both Nick and Judy were determined to prove that they weren't hallucinating as the other officers had implied. This new case occupied their minds, the spectacle with Nick's parents temporarily forgotten.

 **A/N: This was a delightful one to write and for a first time in while I have written more then 3K! This is possibly a beginning of a new case! But what about the spectacle with Nick's parents? Welp, you'll find out in the next chapter! And to you clever readers who figured out what happened in the last chapter congrats! Wasn't that hard was it? Anyways, next time we'll probably have more action here if that's what your waiting for. Welp. Until next time. Chao~**


	12. Chapter 12: An illusion

**A/N: Guys, girls, ladies and gents. I'm back and I hope you haven't thought about me being dead yet! It's been a long while and I've been caught up in my new story Welcome to the Wonderland Academy! And it's been a dozy so far.** **But now I'm back and here's the 12th chapter! Grab a snack, a comfy seat, and whatever it is you're reading this with and enjoy!**

 **Oh! And before I forget. I'll have to give you my thanks** **Alucard15423** **! If you hadn't had spotted my plot hole I'd never would've been able to correct it! Chapter 9 was re-written and I hope you readers who've seen it will read it again to confirm that the hole is sealed! Now, onto the story!**

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Chapter 12: An illusion

Judy's nose twitched as her foot repeatedly thumped on the seat cushion she was standing on. Her eyes looked carefully through the file with frustration. It had been a week prior to the day she and Nick had witnessed that brutal scene and had requested to work on the case since they hadn't any other case to handle. Surprisingly, the buffalo had agreed easily and had shooed them away from his office. They had found possible clues to the murderer and kidnapper but no matter where the clues lead they were always met with a dead end. She sighed and fell onto the chair with exhaustion. She hadn't slept for three days and the caffeine was the only thing keeping her awake. Her ears fell down her back but perked up with lighting speed when she heard the door open. Nick had come in with a bag in hand, possibly donuts, and some more coffee. Unlike the doe, the tod had a wide grin on his muzzle.

"Heya Fluff. How's the case?" Judy sighed and tired lying accepted Nick's warm paw which stroked down her ears. She sighed.

"Nothing. After all this time, all those clues, still nothing. We chased the otter you thought you saw in the warehouse and it turned out to be just an innocent citizen! We searched the whole warehouse from top to bottom but nothing! We didn't find any clues after we interviewed all those fishermen either."

Judy slumped against the chair. Her eyes were tired and urged her to sleep but how could she when there was a murderer on the loose! She felt Nick's paw cup her cheek, turning her to face him and kissed her. She enjoyed the taste of his tongue in her mouth as she wrestled with his tongue who had started to search every inch of her mouth. They remained like that for a while longer before parting. Judy stared at Nick. Admiring her handsome boyfriend when her eyes snapped open and her gaze darted fearfully at the camera in the office.

"No, wait! Nick! What have we-" Nick silenced her, putting a finger to her lips.

"Hush now. Don't worry about it." a grin crossed his snout a me he backed away. Scaling up the shelf next to the camera and removing something from it. Black duct tape. Suddenly something clicked. A trick. It was a trick! Things started to make sense as each clue they had found its role in her head.

"That's it! I got it! Nick, we have to go. Now!"

She dragged the bewildered tod to their cruiser, her usual energy revived. The cruiser sped quickly to the port and Nick had to dig his claws into his seat to keep himself rooted to it and not to fly from his seat. Sirens wailed and they soon reached the port. Judy hurriedly got off when she made a dash for the heavy door of the warehouse.

"Carrots! Wait for me!" Nick rushed to catch up with the speeding bunny, huffing and panting when he got to the doors which his partner was opening with renewed vigor. He chuckled silently and pushed as well, opening the creaking doors. Judy looked about, spotting the seemingly new crates huddled at the back of the warehouse. She started lifting the boxes but they were surprisingly heavy. Nick had attempted to lift them as well but they were too heavy for him as well.

"Why do you want these crates moved anyways? Why not the other ones? They're exactly the same!" Nick fell on his behind as he tried to lift one up but his hands were covered in sweat so his grip had slipped. He groaned and rubbed his aching behind.

"Because, whatever's under here is our lead to finding the murderer!"

She was confident of it. Why else would these crates be here? The crates were fairly new as well, strengthening her suspicion. Judy's foot thumped on the floor, it's speed increasing by the minute. Nick brushed himself off and had started to observe the pile of crates half-heartedly when he saw a discarded hammer. He smirked, if they wanted to deal with these crates, they'll have to know what's in it first. He grabbed the hammer and started to pry of the nails off the crates. Judy hopped over and watched with a bemused expression as he finally got the lid off one the crates. They peered inside and were shocked to find blocks of gold!

"What in Zootopia..." they're eyes widened with shock as the gold reflected the beams of sunlight off it, making them squint a bit.

"Nick-"

"Already on it." the doe turned her head to see the tod already brisk walking to the cruiser. She smiled slightly at the memory of after she had found out that Nick had tricked her and had walked more than twenty paces when her head was turned. It brought a chuckle as she watched the handsome fox now. Clad in a navy-blue police uniform both had never would have thought wouldn't have believed would happen if their meeting didn't become more than it was. Fate, prodding them to cross paths.

The fox had finished reporting their finds to Benjamin and had turned to see his bunny staring back at him with dreamy eyes. He took a moment to study her, before smirking.

"Like what you see, Carrots?" he called and chuckled when he saw her visibly blush and timidly turn her head.

The other officers arrived at the scene and had inspected the gold. It was indeed real and they had to bring all of it back to the station to verify if it was genuine. The crates were carefully loaded onto the waiting van when a shout came from the heap of crates yet to be removed from its pile. Nick and Judy loaded the van and went over, spotting Francine trying to lift a crate, only to let go in vain.

"What's the matter Francine?" Francine looked at the pair with exhaustion.

"No matter how hard I try I can't seem to lift these crates up!"

Judy studied the crates. They did look odd. Eight crates were separated into two columns and towered over her. They were relatively clean but there were specks of brown hidden at the corners. She pointed them out to Nick and he squinted.

"Yup. Definitely blood. Although it's faint it's probably been a few days since it was first splattered here."

The officers there helped look and study the crates for clues but nothing could be found but the dried-up blood. It was already close to sundown when they finally gave up looking at the crates.

"So? What do we do now?" Nick leaned back on one of the crates and heard a click. A second passed and suddenly the ground began to shake, and one side of the eight crates opened. revealing a room behind it. A smile crept over Judy's muzzle and she inwardly squealed. She had been right. The place where the kits and mammals had gone was disguised. Nick and the other officers looked at it in shock and disbelief. Behind the crates didn't seem like there was anything but the rusting and dirty wall.

"How on earth..." Judy smirked.

"The murderers made use of the space behind the warehouse. See how these crates are the only one leaning against this wall? And that the front, right and left walls are not as high as this one? That means this is the only door here and possibly the only place they could be."

Judy smugly explained her hypothesis and saw realization form on the faces of their fellow officers. Nick's chest swelled with pride. His bunny had figured out the mystery and had proved that they weren't hallucinating! His bunny, found the murderer's or murderers possible hideout! Judy looked at the metal doors and jumped up to the left of the door to press the bright red button.

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 **A/N: I am finally finished! I'm back in school, June holidays are over so updates will be irregular and sometimes late. BE WARNED! I'll mostly update from my phone more frequently so if you notice anything wrong or a plot hole somewhere just tell me in the reviews or PM me! Once again I'm very grateful to Alucard15423 for giving me that review and telling me of my plot hole and I hope you'll leave another review again! Also! To my dear friend Zootopian Fluf! Thank you for all the reviews up till now and I'll be looking forward to seeing more of them!**

 **That's all for now and I'll leave you with this little cliffhanger for you. I'd like to write more but that's all I'll give today! Until next time! Chao~**


	13. Chapter 13: Murderer Part I

**A/N: Just a quick little mention to my friend Zootopian Fluf- Thank you so much again Fluf! I'm happy to see you reviewing this story and I also thank you for saying that this is a great story!**

 **Now, let's get on with the story shall we?**

Chapter 13: Murderers Part I

The metal doors slid open and the officers took a step back. The smell of blood stung their nostrils and they grimaced as they took a step forward. Nick radioed Benjamin about their discovery as their eyes carefully searched the room, mouths but a thin line as they spotted the kits. They were dirty, covered in blood. Whether fresh or dry it was hard to determine in the dim lighting of the room. But Nick could see the glowing green from the collars they wore around their necks. Judy squinted, eyes not yet adjusted to the dimness of the room but she could make out the green spots of light as well and swallowed as she went closer. They kits shifted back against the wall and into the dark corners, fear reflected from their eyes.

"Don't worry." she cooed gently, "We won't hurt you."

They didn't relax, almost compressing themselves against the wall and completely curling up in the shadows of the corners. Nick saw his mate having trouble with the kits and went over to her.

"Having trouble Carrots?" She turned to him and smiled.

"I think I can handle this. I have about 300 over brothers and sisters, you know. I can handle a few kits."

He smiled back at her. The number of siblings she had never fail to astonish him, but that meant she was more experienced with the younger ones. She had told him before that her parents had asked her to look after her younger siblings for most of her time at home. He went back to the other officers scanning and reporting their finds, he knew that his mate would be able to handle the kits just fine with him. _You can't underestimate that bunny. Especially, when it comes to looking after kits. I bet she would make the best mom._ He chuckled to himself.

Judy recalled the times she would look after her younger siblings and relatives. Whenever they were scared there was always one trick however that never failed to take their mind of their fear. Judy smiled gently at the kits and covered her face with her paws, waiting for the right moment before uncovering her face and making a silly face, surprising the kits. After a few more tries, more of them came and laughed at her silly faces, bringing down their guard. When they all laughed, Judy stopped pulling faces, allowing their laughter to tickle her ears.

"Are you still scared if us now?"

The kits laughed and shook their heads in reply. Nick watched from afar and smiled. Her faces had also taken the officers off guard and they couldn't help snickering and snorting along with the giggling and laughing of the kits. Nick wasn't spared from it either and his heart swelled with joy when he saw her smiling with the kits. He couldn't promise her kits like he knew she would have wanted. But he would promise her happiness and his love as that was two things he would give her at all costs. The kits opened up to the officers more easily now and told them that they had apparently seen their parents also taken away by their captors. They told off their captors who whipped them almost everyday and always came in large groups. They never figured out what happened to their parents nor ever saw them again. That fact made Judy clench her fist in anger. Nick saw the fire in her eyes and decided to calm it by ruffling her fur and scratch her ears where he knew she loved. She swat his hand away playfully with her paw and glared a little at her boyfriend's mischievous smirk. She rolled her eyes, she didn't miss the fact that Nick had calmed her down. He was a sly and sometimes secretive and clever fox and she was grateful for her mate's concern. Thought about the actions she would have done if Nick wasn't there to stop her. This wasn't the time to unleash her fury. The time would come soon when they found the murders and the parents. She steeled her resolve and her fists clenched in determination. She would find them and bring them to into custody for the sake of the poor civilians who they had captured.

A sound of claw against metal alerted the officers. They look towards the door, wary. Nick and Judy glared at the new arrival, blood boiling under their flesh and fur. A lone panther stood at the doorway, his claws on his toes scratching the metal floor and black fur covered in splotches of fresh red blood.

"Welcome officers." he purred before he launched himself towards them.

 **A/N** : **After long last I will be including some fighting scenes with blood splatter and killing (yes, killing, but just a bit). For you peeps who have been bearing with me and my like for peace and less gruesome scenes I thank you. And for those who are just reading this because it's less gruesome I dunno how it's going to turn out so I advice you to just get some vomit bags just in case. For those readers who have been just waiting for the action I'll try my very best to satisfy your craving for it. And for those who are none of them and still reading this just sit back and enjoy the next chapter as much as you can cause you can't pull a promise from me that it'll be great. I'm still a greenhorn so any reviews constructive criticism, comments and the like are welcomed.**

 **No, I didn't think this would be this short so I'll make a longer chapter the next time around. I've been a bit busy with a thing called life and another thing called school so I've barely got the brain juice to make up more things as of recent but I do promise that the next chapter will likely hit about 3K (my max at the moment cause) and I'll be doing it till I faint. Yes, this chapter was tame but the sea is calm before a storm so yeah. I promise, don't promise, that it'll be gruesome as I'll leave you guys to be the judge of that.**

 **This note has been long, so I'll just cut it off here. Until next time! Chao~**


	14. Chapter 14: Murderer Part II

**A/N: Hiya guys, girls, ladies and gents. Sorry to keep yall waiting and trust me, my progress with this chapter was driving me nuts. So I had a writer's block of plans things and that took a long while to get over and than I caught an infection and I'm in a hospital right now and maybe when you read this I'm already out. Who knows. Point is I finished it up in the hospital while nursing my infection. Painful, but I managed.** **Also! Big thanks to my beta judithwildehopps for helping me make this a much better chapter by editing some of the parts.**

 **Sorry to keep yall waiting for this one, didn't really make it to 3k nor did I make it gruesome as I promised so you can put away any vomit bags if any but if still unsure just keep them there. I'm very sorry and I'm dead tired right now cause it's 2am more or less and I haven't slept a wink yet. So please be easier on me, I promise I'll improve my action scenes the best I can for next time around** **Now if you have any thoughts to share feel free to do so either PM or in the reviews is fine as all comments, criticism (constructive ones), and everything else is welcomed. Of course, without further ado, grab a comfy seat, grab a nice (and healthy maybe) snack and whatever it is you're reading this with and enjoy!**

Chapter 14: Murderer Part II

The room was suddenly filled with outrageous battle. Nick swiftly dodged the whip as it snapped at the floor, the sound cutting through the air, as if it were a knife. The panther was quick and kept his eyes on his targets, maneuvering smoothly like water. The whip was unlike the one Nick and Judy had saw before. This one was tipped with a small metal blade that would slice flesh as easily as tofu, a fact proven earlier when Nick was unfortunately grazed by it. It was out of luck that there wasn't any poison on it. The panther didn't come alone though. A few more mammals had quickly emerged from behind him to attack the other officers.

The sound of gunfire and the clash of metal making Judy's ears ring as it echoed from the metal walls of the room as she twisted and dodged a dagger being thrust her way. She landed neatly back on her feet after somersaulting over her rather large opponent. Glaring pointedly at the lynx she battled and waited for the skilled mammal to make a slip, her tranq gun at paw to dart at any given opportunity. The lynx wore a chainmail that prevented her from sending a strong kick to his stomach which would no doubt send the feline flying without bringing harm to herself. Truthfully, it didn't matter that she would be hurt, what did was if she would be able to protect the kits she shielded behind her back if she was injured. A bleeding or injured leg would be sure to slow her down and with how skilled the murderers who had barged in were the doe couldn't afford that. Her pace couldn't slow, her speed couldn't hinder, or else, the life of the kits would disappear in a blink of an eye. And Judy wasn't going to stand for it, not if she could prevent it. The lynx menacingly towered over the smaller doe but was slightly taken aback when she wasn't deterred in the least by their height difference and was impressed with the determination he saw in the doe's eyes. He had never seen anything like them from any other bunny or hare he had come across, they had determination and courage that was for sure but none like this doe.

She grit her teeth as she decided a more frontal attack to push the lynx further away from the kits behind her who were cowering in fear of the large predator. As risky as it was and as fruitless it might be she had one goal on her mind, protect the kits. Bending her knees, legs full of power like that of a compressed spring launched her towards the lynx with as much speed as her body could muster as she rushed towards the mammal. The lynx readied the daggers in his paws once again, confident of his win against her and when she was in range he attacked her with lethal advances. The doe barely managed to avoid his accurate blows, all her training at the academy worth the pain and struggle to overcome. The doe unfortunately took a few scratches and bruises obtained from grazing the daggers causing her fresh wounds to sting. Her mind told her to stop and end the cruel pain of her shallow wounds but she pushed on and dismissed acknowledging them as she fought on for the greater good and the sakes of the small and young lives she was protecting with her own two paws.

Finally, the lynx slipped, giving the doe an open opportunity to strike. As Judy ran towards him once again he brought a dagger down towards her, missing her as she had made a decision to dodge the blade, just by a hair's breath, and send a sharp kick to the lynx's knee from behind after she had managed to slip by him by ducking under his arm, sending him kneeling over as he tried to keep himself upright. He shouted in pain. His mind, usually focused, was muddled with worry, with fear and distress that he masked with a cruel smile just moments before. It managed to work for a second before it before pain soon won and his mask was broken. He fell and hit his back hard whimpering at the loss and harsh impact, his body took. Unknown to the bunny who had escaped being squashed by the lynx, a small crackle came to life in the lynx's ear.

"Change of plans. Kill the others. This is an order!" Came the angered and bellowing voice of his boss. The lynx sat stunned at the command, lying on the ground as he tried to process the unexpected and rather abrupt order. Hidden under all the clothes he wore, the device stuck painfully into his chest sparked with powerful electricity and made the lynx howl in pain. It only lasted two seconds before it was tame once again and the lynx laid limp on the ground, twitching as electricity surged through him. Judy was stunned on the spot, but not for long as there were sudden battle cries and she turned to see the murderers battling amongst each other, the officers trying to stop them from drawing blood but with no avail as the mammals allowed no intervention, swiping, scratching and shoving at anything that got in their way.

"Stop! STOP IT!!" Judy shouted, emptying her lungs of air as she shouted her plea but the mammals turned a deaf ear on her, not even flinching at her loud and echoing voice.

Her lips formed a thin line as she approached the mammals, determined to stop the madness. Nick saw Judy approaching the battle and ran towards her, his feet, although aching from battling with the swift panther previously, raced to get to her before the obvious danger of the determined doe getting injured or worse, killed. His paws soon found her soft fur and he wrapped his arms around her, preventing her from taking a step further into the heated battle.

"Nick! What are you doing?!" Judy asked struggling and squirming, trying to wiggle her way out of his arms, but lost to the tod in strength.

"Stopping you from getting yourself killed." he said firmly. "You can't step in front of all these weapons and expect to be unscathed!" Judy stopped struggling and mulled over his words, her ears drooped slightly in understanding. She knew Nick was right but someone needed to stop the inevitable blood bath. Their attention turned to the most horrid sounds they had ever heard as it flowed from the battle. Blood was shed and made puddles into a lake of crimson as the mammals aggressively fought each other, it was only now that blood was shed that the mammals started acting odd. The lynx that Judy had battled lie dead on the ground, crimson splattered on his chainmail. His lifeless form made Judy grieve just a little. As suddenly as the wolf who had killed him stopped, his eyes turned a glowing red and he glared at the lynx. The wolf raised his gun and shot the lynx repeatedly and non-stop until his bullets ran out. Nick and Judy looked on in horror as the wolf ran threw the empty gun aside, growling. Judy struggled and kicked more furiously and tried to get Nick to let her go but it was too late. The wolf's sharp teeth clamped down hard on the lynx's arm and put a paw to the lynx's chest and started to tear off the lynx's arm a crimson puddle forming to every officer's displeasure.

Judy was horrified and flailed and kicked more wildly, Nick having to tighten his hold on his mate to keep her away from intervening. It was as if the whole battlefield was not one of civilised mammals but instead of ruthless savages. They didn't use weapons anymore, discarding them, starting to use their teeth, claws, fangs, and their natural abilities to fight each other till death. Blood was splattered onto the cold metallic floor as one by one the mammals took each other out.

Arms were broken, torn and ripped. Legs were bitten off, chewed and thrown. Large teeth and fang marks, numerous slashes of claws, many howls of pain and death followed closely to each and every one. As all the others went to the afterlife one mammal stood tall in victory of the rest, his fangs and muzzle were now coated in thick crimson and his claws were out, dripping with the crimson liquid as well. He had killed his enemies and managed to survive and escape the grip of death. His eyes, once savagely red, were now back to their golden-brown colour and he looked around the room. A flood of emotions went through him from then.

His friends were killed, their blood was splattered everywhere, he looked at his paws and they shook as he realized what he had done. His paws, now more than ever, would never be clean but instead stained with the blood of his friends. The panther looked and stared blankly at the solid evidence of his deeds that would never be undone. It was over. The fight was done, but the officers were not. They had been scratched at, pushed away, prevented from intervening and had the gashes, bruises and wounds to prove how many times they were shoved away when they tried. Even the largest officers suffered wounds and didn't manage to stop them as the seemingly savage mammals had furiously got them out of the way. The sounds of sirens came closer and soon, the medics as well as some dispatch officers arrived at the scene. The chief had also came to survey the gruesome mess. Both Nick and Judy as well as some of the officers were surprised at the sudden appearance of the new arrivals.

"What…. How….?" Bogo snorted as Judy stammered, surprise and confusion evident on her muzzle.

"Officer Jackson there has alerted us on the situation." The buffalo nodded to the tiger whose leg was bleeding and arm was bent at a weird angle, he noticed the stares from Judy and Nick as well as a few others and winked, wincing when he felt a sting of pain from his bloody and bent arm. The medics attended to him and put him on a stretcher, quickly loading him onto the ambulance truck. Their attention quickly turned to the mini whines, yelps, and hiss of the kits. The medics taking care of them tried to apply medicine on the kits and luckily there were no severe wounds on them excluding the whip marks. The scene had surprisingly calmed and they winced at the gruesome aftermath of the battle. The black panther still kneeled in the crimson field of his once comrades and looked at his paws, covered from claw tips to his arms with proof of his done deeds. Judy was suddenly overcome with hot realization and began to struggle again.

"Nick. Can you let me go now? You're um…. " her voice trailed off and Nick looked at her curiously. His eyes looked at where his arms were wrapped around and he immediately let go, causing the doe to tumble ungracefully forward into the crimson aftermath. After a moment of soft mutterings she glared at the tod.

"Er…. Oops. Sorry about that carrots." he sheepishly grinned and he was visibly flushed under his red fur. Next time. How about being more careful where you put your paws? He chided himself. The memory of where his paws were…… Nick shook his head. It was best not to think about it for now. Judy had soon taken her attention away from Nick when she heard a faint crackle of electricity. She found a dead wolf's chest exposed for her to see. The wolf's shirt had obviously been torn and hid slightly the metal object latched onto his chest. She looked at the odd contraption, curiosity blocking her ears from her mate's voice for the moment. She inched closer before gasping. The circular metal object was crackling with electricity and a close look between the object and the wolf's chest was the very things allowing the object to latch onto the wolf so well. Judy couldn't be sure, but under the crimson coating it was a the color of metal. A paw gently settled on her shoulder and she turned to see her mate's inquisitive gaze and while Bogo stood a short distance away, raising a brow at the curious doe. The doe peeked at the object once more before voicing her thoughts.

"I think you need to see this chief." The buffalo walked over as Judy pulled back the garment of the lifeless wolf. His brows furrowed in apprehension. Something was not right.

"Give it to the examiners. They'll know what to do." the doe saluted the cape buffalo and called over the crime scene examiners to collect the evidence. The buffalo turned from the scene and headed towards his cruiser leaning against the cool metal of the vehicle. Questions swirled in his mind but no answers seemed to want to show. What was the point of all this? Why did they do this? He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing and drowning himself in quiet for a few minutes before an explosion sounded and shook the soils of the earth. He turned towards the source and he frowned. The boxes that had hidden the doors to the room had exploded as a few kits had made their way out. He counted five, now dead kits. Three who were further from the blast had been thrown back but unharmed. He inwardly sighed in slight relief, at least some were still alive. He glared hard at the boxes. Wood sticking out as if petals of a flower, only less beautiful and much less pleasant to see. The message inside made it clear everything thus far was planned. Expected.

"This is only another small step. We will surely win. Time does not solve everything."

The officers grimly glared at the crimson words of horrid penmanship. As if time stopped, nothing moved for a moment. And it started again as the kits started to wail and sob at the lost of their friends. Judy and a few others dashed over to comfort the kits and a few including Nick continued to glare at the cryptic message. Bogo could see that the gears in their heads were turning and working, trying to figure out what was the motive of the masterminds behind all of it. What was the motives of Jones and Carla? That, was anyone's guess. Judy's mind blazed with horrid memories and she had a feeling, that what came next was going to be. Extremely. Bad.

 **A/N: I can _not_ believe I took so long with this, I was literally driving myself up a wall. If I too any longer I think I'd have chewed my nails of, ugh. Nasty to imagine. Don't get me wrong I think some of us has seen that nasty sight before. Anyways, hope you guys are enjoying this so far, if you are, good! If you're not, feel free to request me to add in something interesting or suggest adding in some things and I might be able to mix it in this already messy mix of a fic.**

 **Now, to the reviews!**

 **Zootopian Fluf- That was so very kind if you Fluf and I appreciate the offer very much!** **It's not as much action as I hoped I could but in but I'll try to improve in that aspect.**

 **It's a pity that's it. Not very much but still I treasure the few people who take the time to give me some feedback and reviews. Thanks very much for boosting my confidence and the story is still far from over but for now this is it. So, until next time! Chao~ ;)**


	15. Chapter 15: Just a short break

**A/N: Hiya guys, girls, ladies and gents! thanks for waiting ya'll! This chapter took a little while to write so apologies for the wait! I've been a tad occupied with school and stuff but managed to pull this together so please, grab a comfy seat, a snack, and whatever it is you're using to read thing and enjoy!**

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Chapter 15: Just a short break

Nick settled down on the couch of the quiet home as he stared down at the little ball of fluff curled against his chest. Judy was snoring away, after Bogo had dismissed them, and the two were glad that the rest of the injured or tired officers who had been with them had also been sent home to rest. Nick gently stroked her soft ears, as he heard the bunny in his arms purr and cuddle closer to him, her small nose twitching from time to time. Nick continued to stroke her ears while he let his mind wonder back to a few hours before.

He and Judy were standing at the door of the interrogation room as they watched the chief tower over the black panther. At first the panther was tight-lipped, and refused to tell them anything. He had a frightened look, and was very fidgety never even looking the chief's way. But after some time, and a few persuading words he spilled the beans about everything he knew. His name was Robert Clawson, he, his wife and his son had just ate their dinner one night and were walking home when he felt something hit his head, and he fell unconscious. He awoke in a dark room where there were other mammals, and his wife right beside him. His wife, Mary, a cheetah had told him she was also knocked out. They had not seen their son anywhere, and were frantic to look for him. When a wolf with grey and white fur, clad in a suit of black walked into the room with a few more mammals in black behind him. The wolf had wore sunglasses which seemed foolish as he stood in the dark room. The wolf had introduced himself as Grey before immediately telling them that they would be subjected to harsh training. Some of the mammals were shouting and voicing their objection but Grey simply said a few words that hushed them.

"If, you don't cooperate I'm afraid your children will suffer the consequences. Death by poison, death by whipping, you all should know what I'm getting at."

Grey had smiled in content when everyone had shut their muzzles. Grey told them they would have to do as he ordered, and if they didn't either they or their kits would suffer. Robert and Mary had given in at first, suffered wounds, bruises, scratches while they battled with many mammals in black daily as well amongst themselves. They were forced to consume poison on a daily basis so that they would be immune to poison. They had lost much weight and had numerous scars but they never complained or resisted, fearing for their son who was somewhere out there and in the paws of their captors. Mary had started to resist after two months, strongly objecting to being treated like tools and had tried to kill Grey but that was all in vain. She was whipped to death not long after she was caught, muzzled and painfully held as Grey whipped her, doing it for four hours straight every day, resulting in her death three weeks later.

Robert had broken down, and was in tears at that point and Chief Bogo decided that it was enough for now and they would hear the rest the next day but the panther refused and struggled to make his words clear as he weeped.

After his wife's death, he had sworn that he'd get back at his captors once he became stronger, and was able to exact revenge on them. He didn't think of the reason for the harsh training, and daily poison consumption but soon found out. To his horror he was a pawn to Grey as well as the 'higher ups' and did their dirty work of capturing families and killing of mammals, and the kits weren't spared either. He was forced to do as they commanded, and was always threatened with the life of his son. He had made friends amongst the ones captured with him but it never soothed the fact that they were dancing in the paw of Grey and the higher ups, whoever they were. The day before they were allowed to move with lesser supervision, they had metal devices painfully stabbed into the center of their chest, the cold sharp metal taking root to hold them in place. The object would send high volts of electricity coursing through them if they stepped out of line, disobeyed or were hesitant even for a second about doing as they were told. Robert had been assigned to torture groups of kits, to keep them fearful and obedient. It was torture for him every day but he masked it with a smile of pure evil that he hoped would keep his captors from killing him before he avenged his wife. Then, that day, he and some others were ordered to raid and murder th the officers and kits he had been torturing. He was horrified but obeyed, he had never thought that he would have killed his own comrades with his own paws.

Robert finally stopped and his fur turned moist as his tears flowed like a waterfall, drenching his clothes and his words were no longer clear as he weeped. His sorrow ran deep, and his cries rang and echoed throughout the precinct as he was brought to one of the cells. Unfortunate as it was they could take no chances and in that cell at least he'll be watched over. Nick's mind drifted back to reality as the small doe stirred and whimpered in her sleep, quickly turning into groans and she writhed as if she was struggling in the grasp of a larger mammal. Nick panicked and shook his mate's shoulders.

"Judy! Judy wake up! What's wrong?! JUDY!" Amethyst irises met emerald ones as the rabbit's eyes snapped open. She panted and looked carefully around the small apartment before reaching a paw around her neck and sighed in relief. Nick pulled her closer and he felt that her fur was moist from sweat.

"Judy. What's wrong?" The small bunny was calmed by the tod's gentle tone and she soon nuzzled into his chest.

"I…. I had, that dream again. He… Jones…. He's going to do it again. I'm sure. I'm sure….." she whimpered and Nick brought her deeper into his embrace and narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular. _If that's true. This time. I'll protect you._ His mind almost wandered to the past, prevented by a certain frightened bunny in his arms. He cooed comforting words and stroked her ears that calmed her down after a while. Two years. That was how long ago Jones appeared in their lives. Three years ago, was the missing mammals case. The smile on the tiger's muzzle as he was brought into custody. Both snuggled together for comfort and dozed of as they were on the couch.

The next morning was as usual. The morning sun shining down as the pair woke up bright and early to get ready for work. Each took turns in the shower and put on their uniforms and shined their badges before driving to work with their usual banter. They entered the bullpen side by side and stood on their usual seat as they waited for Bogo.

"Seriously though Carrots, are you sure you're fine?" Judy smiled reassuringly but didn't get a chance to utter a word as Bogo walked into the room, silencing the racket the other officers made.

"Silence! Now, I've got a few things on the docket today. Officer Fangmeyer, Higgins, Wolford…." as the chief addressed the officers and sent them one by one off with their assignments the pair awaited their names to be called.

"You think the chief will put us on parking duty today?" Nick spared a glance at his bunny and noticed her nose twitched.

"Hopefully-"

"Officers Hopps, Wilde!"

Both officers jolted to attention, Nick noticed the room was now empty with only the three of them. Bogo glared at the small pair.

"You two, will be tracking down Grey." The pair stared at him, wide eyed.

"But sir! We haven't got-" for the third time that day, Judy was interrupted.

"We have a lead. Robert confessed that there are other sites like the one you found in the other warehouses. He has told us that before he was ordered to play captor he was caged in a warehouse with some others to train. I had wanted to start a full investigation but he doesn't want more deaths to occur. It seems now I can only comfort him that my most prized officers do the investigation themselves." Nick registered Bogo's words in his head.

"If. They didn't prevent Robert from finding out where he was held captive. Doesn't that mean they planned to kill every mammal including Robert?" Bogo frowned grimly.

"It's , that metal object hasn't activated to kill him yet. It's still in working condition so that might also mean that they intentionally _wanted_ him alive to tell us."

Judy was deep in thought. Nothing was making any sense. First, there was the terrorists, and then the bombers. Then this case. Bogo had usher both officers out of the bullpen as Judy drowned herself in her thoughts. Nick noticed the doe furrow her brows as the gears in her head turned. He himself was racking his brain, trying to find clues in the past events that had occurred. Clearly there was a motive, the question was what was that motive? They got their case file from Clawhauser before strolling to their cruiser deep in thought. Nick sighed as he climbed into the vehicle. Thinking was getting them nowhere. They needed a clue. Anything that could lead them to understand what was going through the minds of Jones and Carla. Nick looked over at his bunny. She still had her brows furrowed in thought and her foot had started to thump. He smiled at his hard working bunny. _Maybe a little break before tracking this wolf down._ He thought. They _were_ over-working their brains as they kept this up and relaxing a bit wouldn't do them any harm. He nudged Judy and she quickly jerked her head in his direction causing the fox to chuckle softly.

"Easy Carrots, I just wanted to suggest a little break." Judy's eyes widened.

"We can't do that. We're on the clock! And we need to go and track down that wolf."

"I know, Carrots but we've been overworking our brains a little too much lately don't cha think?" Judy mulled over the thought for a while. Maybe just a _little_ break wouldn't hurt. She sighed.

"Fine. Just a short break, okay? And then we're back to tracking down that wolf." Nick grinned and stepped on the gas. He had a destination in mind for this _short_ break and prepared himself for small doe's competitive spirit.

00000000000000

"Nick. I agreed to have a short break, right?"

"That, you did Carrots."

"So why are we here again?"

The couple now stood in front of a broken down cinema. The once rich red now faded and some of the lights flickered, dust collected in dark corners and cobwebs stuck to every nook and cranny of the entrance as far as Judy could tell. She surveyed the empty ticket booth and then looked curiously at Nick as he pushed open one of the large door of the cinema, dust flying as he did so.

"This place was abandoned long ago and I've been told that it was turned into a haunted house of sorts. A lot of those youngsters have been coming here for those tests of courage."

"That doesn't answer my question Nick."

"Now, now, let me finish. My idea is that we do our own little test of courage and have a little bet just to add on to the fun." Judy's ears perked at the word 'bet' and she tilted her head in curiosity. So far, all their little bets she had won and Nick seem to never tire watching her win. Judy had been curious why he hadn't went head on full force with her yet. She knew he could've won them quite easily. _Maybe I can get him to tell me why after this._ She thought, but for now she was locked on winning this bet.

"So…. What's the bet?" Nick smirked, he knew he had caught her interest. In all honesty, he had been waiting for this chance for quite a while and this time, he planned to win the bet. _Since there might be a chance I'll never get to do it I might as well do it now. Just hope the stuff is still there._ He thought, but he wanted to believe that anyone who had came here only came for the scare and didn't find the things he had hidden.

"The bet is simple. The one who gets scared first loses, and the winner can ask the lower to do anything." He saw Judy's ears perk. It was a huge risk as he knew that if he lost he'd might as be prepared to wear an embarrassing outfit and stand out on the streets looking like a total fool. _Well at least my plan can still possibly succeed._ He thought. He was past thinking that believing things would go well, proof was when he believed it somehow in some way something _did_ go wrong. So this time. He took no chances.

Judy smirked and Nick could see the fire in her eyes. And so, the bet begun. The pair pushed the door open further so they could both slip inside. The door closed with a loud bang that almost caught Judy off guard. _That was close._ She thought as she masked her anxiety with a calm expression. They walked through the halls and reached Theater 1.

"They say the rooms are all like mazes so we pick one of them and just roam through them. Should take about ten minutes tops since they're all simple and straightforward."

Judy's eyes scanned the other rooms down the hall. They all looked the same to her and she knew Nick wouldn't be scared easily.

"Which is the scariest?" Nick allowed a shadow of a smile pass his muzzle and pointed to Theater 5. The couple strolled down the corridor and slowly opened the door and were greeted by darkness and silence as they carefully stepped inside. After a few paces a slow and haunting music started to play, the twinkling sounds of a triangle made chills down Judy's spine. Her mind was on high alert and her ears twitched at every sound, her nose twitched in nervousness as she took a step at a time further into the haunted maze. Nick, on the other paw, was calm and collected and didn't seem afraid or nervous. Determination settled into Judy and she locked her expression into one devoid of any interest.

As they took each step and rounded the first bend a chilling laughter echoed the walls of the maze. Nick's ear twitched and he frowned. Something told him that that laugh was _not_ artificial or from some radio hidden in a dark corner. He grabbed Judy's paw and she looked at him curiously.

"Stay close to me. And don't let go of my paw." His eyes stayed focused on the path of the simple maze and he took in the bends carefully, peeking around it slowly and cautiously before proceeding. Judy slowly followed her mate quietly, not wanting to disturb her fox's focus. Nick breathed deeply as he tried to picture what would be around one more bend. Would the things he hid there still be where he last hid them? He was hesitant, but waiting would get them nowhere. He looked at Judy and made sure that she wasn't peeking around the bend.

"Carrots, I need a favor from you."

"What is it Nick?"

"Close your eyes." Judy tilted her head in confusion and at that moment Nick couldn't help thinking she was cute.

"Why-"

"Please, Carrots?" Judy couldn't resist the begging look of her mate. After a moment of silence she sighed.

"Alright. I'll close my eyes."

Nick smiled broadly as the doe closed her eyes, already wishing he could see her amethyst eyes once more. She gently pulled the small bunny around the bend and his smile disappeared and turned into a grim frown. _Oh no… Why are they here_

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 **A/N: Did you enjoy the chapter? If you did that's great!**

 **Also, thank you Fluf for saying that the chapter was great! I'm glad I impressed you and thank you for all the compliments!**

 **Well, I have nothing more to say for now and I have some dinner to finish up soon. So, until next time! Chao!~**


	16. Chapter 16: Red History I

**A/N: Hiya guys, girls, ladies and gents! It's been a while! I've been procrastinating, I admit, I've been doing so after my one-shot You stole my heart but I promise that I'll get stuff written sooner or later and it's becoming quite more irregular so forgive me. I have exams to prepare for as they are around the corner and homework to complete, bleh. I might be a little later in updating the story so I apologize and try to keep it as a once a week thing. I'm also currently planning some side projects to write as well so, yeah. They might pop up sooner or later. And, well, it's inevitable anyhow I have written in a flashback. Yes, it might be a little boring but bear with me.**

 **This here is just a little terrifying (Though I doubt it cause I kinda glossed it over somewhat) so I think you might want to get comfy in a seat, a bed or wherever, grab some nice snack(s) and enjoy!**

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Chapter 16: Red History I

Nick held back a growl at the sight of the large figure before him. A pair of rhinos in a black suits stood around the bend and in front of the brown doors of the exit. Talking to them was a tiger in a fashionable suit and intimidating air about him, his right leg and left arms metal limbs as well as the eyepatch over his right eye making him look all the more villainous.

"You _must_ make sure no one passes these doors am I clear on that?!" The tiger's voice echoed throughout the dark maze and Judy's ears perked slightly as she started to tremble. Her paw clenched Nick's tightly and pulled herself closer to him.

"N-nick… Is t-that…?" Nick squeezed Judy's paw and pulled her to his chest, stroking her ears to soothe her. But the undeniable truth was standing right there, alive and around the bend. James was here. The rhinos saluted the tiger, their eyes showing a small ounce of fear as they meet with his frightening gaze. The tiger nodded, satisfied, opened the doors and went out, the door closing with a loud 'thunk'. The rhinos then slumped their shoulders and relaxed, breathing out sighs of relief as they stretched their tired muscles. Nick looked back down to see Judy softly whimpering and clinging to him as tears streamed from her eyes, drenching his uniform. Nick hugged her closer, cooing into her ear and rubbing her back to calm her down, uncaring for the tears that drenched his neat uniform. The past that both had rather left them had come back, haunting them both. They had met James two years ago. Not on a very nice case. James had been involved with smuggling catnip in particular and other illegal substances and items into the city and selling them to many wealthy families in exchange for money. And he was earning big bucks selling them until the ZPD had found him out and were on this tail. He made his escape though, or rather, because he knew he wouldn't be able to escape easily from the ZPD, he had caused a scene. One the two would never be able to forget.

 _Two years ago_

A cold wind howled as snow fell down like hail in Tundratown and light rain drizzled down in the Rainforest district. In between the two districts, Nick and Judy were sitting quietly in the cruiser in an alley as they awaited the arrival of a tiger near a bar. Their cruiser hidden just enough so that they couldn't be seen while they were able to see the customers of the bar go in and out. Judy's eyes scanned the area and her ears were perked and alert for any sign of the tiger they were looking for. Nick laid back in his seat, his posture relaxed as his eyes also surveyed the area in front of the bar and watching the ins and outs of the bar's customers and staff lazily.

"Think we'll see him tonight Fluff?" Judy's ears twitched slightly at Nick's sudden question although her eyes were glued to the outside of the cruiser.

"Maybe. We've been out here for four nights, this being the fifth, but no sign of him. But it's probably going to be today since the weeks going to end soon and he always delivered the goods before the week ends. Today is the last day of the week. But it's still possible he knows we're watching so who knows?" She dished out her hypothesis of the situation easily as her eyes locked on a figure dressed in a long coat and hat covering his face and features. She smirked when she saw the orange and black stripes of his face and hands peeking out before they once again were hidden by the dull pockets and raised collar. "And there he is." Judy smiled triumphantly and Nick ruffled the fur between her ears with a slight smile.

"And just in time to. I want to get back home and order some fried crickets for dinner, so hurry up Fluff. I'm starving here." Nick stepped out of the cruiser as he said so, a relaxed smirk on his muzzle.

Judy rolled her eyes and smoothed back the fur between her ears as a small smile appeared on her muzzle at her partner's comment. They walked towards the bar and Judy went over the information stored in the case file in her head again. James was the only son of a wealthy family and had taken over his father's business just recently. He had then continued the smuggling and selling catnip and the like for money from other wealthy families with more success than his father and was soon easily the richest mammal in Zootopia. He had always decided that he would personally go and deliver the illegal goods himself to make sure that the negotiations didn't fail like some of the mammals his father had hired while he was still the head of the family. James had always conducted the negotiations in this very bar he had just entered, wearing clothes of a normal civilian or a dull grey colored, hat and coat to make himself less recognisable. The pair of officers strolled into the bar, they were in their casual clothes as police uniforms would cause a stir and they would stick out like a sore thumb. Bogo had the other officers working on another major case so only the two of them were available to deal with this case as they were on their day offs. The bar was filled with mammals large and small, drunk or not or were going to be, they roamed each and every corner of the place, some places more crowded than others. The bartenders were busy with the drinks, entertaining their customers and cleaning up the vomit that drunk mammals had coughed out as well as tending to the empty and dirty tables to clean them up, ready for their next customers.

The pair scanned around the dimly lit bar in search for their target. Nick, with his night vision, then locked his eyes on the coated figure of the tiger they had seen earlier and was now weaving his way through the crowds of mammals and disappeared in one of the private rooms that the bar provided for those VIM customers who wanted to be far from the hustle and bustle or wanted time to themselves and sometimes, alone with their 'guests'. Nick grimaced at the thought of those VIMs who brought their guests to drink with them. He controlled a shiver of disgust as he walked through the crowd. Only one with less than half a mind would ever want to be in this very bar, known as a normal bar by most innocent mammals but to criminals, shady businessmammals, and any mammal who defied the law, this was a hideout, a place of trade, a safe haven. The place where they could all be safe from the eyes of the ZPD, or so they thought. The Crown Cracker. And odd name, but then again. The owner was a wacky weasel who had proclaimed that he could lift an elephant and fly like a bird, in the end dying when he tried to prove that he could pull a car made for large mammals with his neck.

The pair reached the room quickly, making sure their footfalls couldn't be heard by the tiger inside. They heard the tiger's low voice accompanied by another, Judy's keen ears picked up on the conversation, their words as clear as day.

"So? Have you got it Scarleski?"

"Of course Mr Woodman. The catnip is right here." the case was hefted onto the table with a 'thump'. Mr Woodman, an otter, rubbed his hands together greedily. With this, he would be able to complete his experiment. _With this, I'll be sure to destroy the Scarleski family! And finally,_ I'll _will be the most powerful and wealthy mammal in Zootopia!_ He thought as he smiled maliciously as his unknowing target handed him the case of catnip. Outside, Judy quietly conveyed the conversation to Nick and had already called for backup a few minutes ago. Nick had then quietly picked the lock and it unlocked easily. Judy fixed him with a questioning stare and he shrugged.

"A little trick that comes in handy when you're dealing with angry mammals." He said simply and twirled the pin he had used to lockpick the door in his paw. Judy had wanted to ask more but left it for now, they had more important things to do. Judy opened the door quickly and raised her tranq gun.

"ZPD! Hands in the a-" before she could finish the tiger was already standing and had dashed towards her, his fist smashing her face. Judy flew and coughed blood, struggling to stay conscious as her head neared the door, before it could a red blur was soon behind her head and cushioned the impact on her head somewhat. Nick clenched his teeth as his entire paw crashed into the wooden door, the broken wood poking and biting at his flesh, the sharp points of the splinters of wood slicing it, making his paw bleed. Judy had quickly recovered and noticed his hand behind her head and the blood oozing out of it.

"Nick!" her panicked shout echoed throughout the room as she got out a bit sluggishly, wincing a little and turned to see Nick's paw in the door. Nick was about to assure that he was fine but from the corner of his eye he saw the tiger's large paws had begin to advance towards them. His mind a mess and thoughts were racing through his head a mile a minute, but one thought outshined the rest. _Run._ With a grunt of pain he had pulled his paw out from the door, and grabbed Judy with his uninjured paw to make a dash out of the door and escape. The last thing they saw before they felt faint was the lush red carpeted floor with gold lining before their vision faded to blackness.

Claws clicking against metal woke Judy's ears and she opened her eyes, blinking out the sleep in them. The scene in front of her shocked her. Numerous mammals sat in cells, dirty and dressed in rags with barely any spirit in their eyes and what seemed to be left of them was a shell of the mammal they once were. Large mammals roamed the corridor in between the cells on both sides of the room, torches flicked hauntingly and shadows in dark corners seemed to intensify the gloom and despair in the place. A creaking echoed against the walls and metal bars and the lifeless mammals flinched and suddenly their lifeless eyes were filled with fear as a voice reached their ears.

"Bring them out!" Judy immediately knew that it was James and the image of Nick's paw, stuck in the wooden door and oozing with blood came to the forefront of her mind. Her heart beat faster as she frantically searched for Nick amongst the many mammals in cells, she finally spotted him being pushed roughly out of a cell by a rhino. He looked fine and his paw was bandaged up. _Thank God, he's safe!_ She thought as relief flooded her mind before she was brought back to reality by a harsh shove. She turned her head to see a rhino glaring at her. She wanted very badly to fight back but her paws were roped tightly enough that they dug into her wrists painfully when she tried to wriggle her paws out of them. She gave up and followed the crowd, some jittery and seemingly anxious while others seem clueless about what was going on. Judy spotted Nick's russet fur not far off and walked closer to him, nudging him to alert him of her presence. The tod spotted the grey doe and slowed his pace slightly so she could walk beside him, they were ushered up stone steps and Nick noticed that the higher they went, the brighter it got. Soon, he was squinting as bright light hit his eyes. Being more used to the dark he tried to shield his eyes from the bright rays with his currently bond paws. James stood in the middle of the room as he waited for all the mammals to flow in. James smile hid it's sinister nature and waited patiently for his audience to settle into the room. Once they were all gathered in the room and had the ropes around their wrists cut, James coughed to bring their attention upon him. Whisperings and murmurs of conversation died down as their eyes focused on him.

"Mammals! Today, we're playing my favourite game again. Hide and seek! The game is simple, you hide somewhere in the mansion and I try to find you, if you manage to hide for the whole 3 hours of the game you'll get a prize! If you fail to do so, well. You'll see. So without further ado, go! You have 5 minutes to hide!" The children immediately dashed off first, excited that they were going to play in this huge and wide place. Some mammals were wary and extremely jittery and immediately rushed off as well. Some others slowly broke from the group either alone or in pairs or groups, seemingly confused about the whole situation. Something was afoot, and the pair had a gut feeling that the 'game' was not as simple as it seemed but they had no proof to based that off. They cautiously roamed halls and corridors passed doors and rooms and occasionally looked behind the doors to see what laid beyond them. They had now reached a corridor where there were windows running along the side, giving them view of the outside world. After, who knew how long of walking and scanning the many rooms and corridors, they were slightly relieved that they would know what the outside was like right now but instantly regretted their decision of looking out the window as their blood turned cold and a frost-like and invisible touch sent chills down their spine and make their fur stand. Outside was a cemetery. One that stretched far and deep into the uninhabited part of the jungle nearby, clearly and obviously part of the Rainforest district. Though it was clearly a sunny afternoon, the air seemed cold around them as they surveyed the grounds below them, their eyes unable to break away. Tombstones were creepily scattered about, the fences were spiked and high, preventing any mammal from going in or out. Dead trees and flowers were everywhere and brown and dried leaves brushed the cemetery floor, making it all the more eerie as it was the only sound that seem to be there and nothing else but silence. What made their blood run could was the sight of fresh blood splattered all over the grounds, covering the trees, flowers, tombstones and even the metal fences. In the dim shadows of the large canopy above made it seem darker than it should have been in the bright sunlight. They shivered as they saw bones big and small scattered around and their eyes bugged when their eyes followed the skulls aligned against the fence. This one cemetery was one of the most horrible ones the pair had ever seen so far.

Judy averted her gaze, hugging herself as a cold shiver of fear went up her spine once more. There were not only a few but close to thousands maybe millions of tombstones lying at rest in that place. It was close to being covered with it. Nick felt revolted, disgusted. _How could he…. How could he kill all these mammals?!_ His cry was internal, silent to the outside and his words fell on no ears as he kept ever more silent. As if the heavens thought that it wasn't enough, a young lamb ran out to the cemetery, oblivious to the gloom and creepiness of the place as she smiled and squealed with glee. She ran and hid behind a tomb, giggling happily as she hid. James appeared seconds after, hands behind his back as he searched the cemetery for the young mammal.

"Where are you~? Come out, come out wherever you are~" Nick could even hear James's voice from where he stood. James had his paws behind his back but he was at an angle where Nick couldn't see what was clasped in his paws. The young lamb snickered as he said so, not realizing that her doom awaited in his paws. James's eyes scanned the area slowly and smiled sinisterly when he spotted a tuft of the lamb's fur. Nick's eyes widened as James brought out a bat with nails crookedly stuck into it and raised it above his head. Before the lamb could even let out a scream of pain or a surprised squeak, James had ended her life. All that was left was a revolting mess. Nick quickly swiveled his head away from the window, his mind replaying the scene over and over again in his head. It was swift, quick, and ended just like that. Judy's ears heard his soft whimper and she turned to him worriedly.

"Nick? What's wrong? What happened?" Nick clutched his head and tried desperately to erase the horrendous scene from his mind. "Nick?" Judy's soft and sweet voice was his only comfort, the only thing keeping him from breaking at that very moment. Judy wrapped her arms around the trembling tod, who snuggled more into her warm embrace. Nick found himself leaning more into her arms and her scent washed over him, giving him a sense of safety and comfort. After a few long and silent moment, he calmed and stopped trembling pulling himself away from the worried doe.

"Thanks, Carrots. I'm fine now, I promise." the doe's dazzling amethysts was filled with worry and concern for the tod.

"Nick, what happened? Why were you-" Nick put a digit softly on her lips.

"Trembling? I saw something terrible Carrots. Something terrible, horrible and gruesome. But I don't want you to see it. So please, do me a favor. Don't ask anymore, and don't look out of the window, okay?"

Nick stared into her amethyst orbs and she stared back into his emeralds. She could see the serious look in his eyes and nodded her head in understanding. He sighed and slowly peeked over the edge. The corpse of the lamb was gone, as well as James, and the courtyard was once again empty, blood splattered, and creepy, with the new addition of the young lamb's blood. _Good and bad. If he finds us he would probably kill us as well._ Nick thought to himself and sighed. He was glad that the physical corpse wasn't there to once again plunge his mind into the abyss and ushered Judy on, constantly keeping a paw on her shoulder to keep her close to him. Unbeknownst to him, he had his tail protectively around the small doe and she herself didn't notice as the gears spun in her head and trying to answer the various questions swirling in her mind. They hurried into a room with coal black doors, ears and eyes alert as they scanned the bright room. It seemed to be a music room as it was quite filled with instruments. A piano sat elegantly near the far end of the room while the others seem to have been scattered around the room at random and only leaving a clean space around where the piano was. They approached it and noticed that there wasn't even a speck of dust on the piano and was in perfect condition. Nick looked about the piano as Judy moved to look at all the other instruments in the room, trumpets, maracas, triangles, drums, a harp, some saxophones, and other smaller and medium sized instruments seemed to have been left to collect dust unlike the piano.

Judy carefully tread her way through the instruments and took advantage of her small size to slip through the narrow gaps between them. Upon going in even further, she spotted a guitar in the corner, its case moldy and thrown aside and the instrument looked extremely old and worn. Judy let her eyes roam the old but beautiful instrument but froze immediately when the sound of footsteps and the click of sharp claws on marble came from outside the door, alerting Judy's keen ears of possible danger. Her mind immediately thought of James. _If it_ is _him. I'm sure he's gonna get us muzzled or tortured if he finds up. And no way am I letting him catch us._ Now determined not to be caught, she turned to look at Nick who seemed unaware of the approaching danger, continuing to inspect the piano with interest. Judy looked at the door fearfully as the sound came closer. Judy quickly slipped back out the mess of instruments, almost tripping but catching herself before she could fall and cause a crash that would undoubtedly alert the mammal outside that they were in the room, whoever he or she was. Her mind became frantic as she hear the click of the doorknob opening and pushed herself to get through the mess of instruments faster, cursing herself for ever going through it in the first place. Finally, she broke out of the mess and ran towards Nick, pulling him into a hiding place she had spotted whilst she ran and pulled him into it, doing whatever else she could to hide them.

"Carrots, why-" Judy hurriedly clapped her hands onto his muzzle to stop him from talking and gestured to her ears and then the door and then asked him to be quiet, with a her finger to her lips. Nick looked quizzically and she facepalmed. _Dumb fox._ She thought and her ears perked higher as the door creaked 's eyes snapped to the door in panic as she quickly flattened her ears to her back and looked at the mammal in the doorway. There stood the very mammal she had anticipated it would be, James. He strolled into the room calmly, inspecting the instruments with only his eyes and Judy shivered at the sinister smile on his muzzle. Every minute passes as he gradually approached the piano, step by step, slowly but surely. Looking around to see if any of the mammals he had imprisoned had came in here. He sniffed the air, it seemed like many had been in here. Too many to count, but that was as expected. He bent low and searched under the piano, nothing. Done with his search, he walked away and closed the door behind him. There was silence, until the lid of the piano gradually opened, the tod and doe's head only peeking out slightly. They sighed in relief when they saw that the tiger was no where in the room.

"That was a close call, luckily we hid in here." Nick opened the lid of the piano wider and allowed the doe to hop out before he descended from it himself. Judy shrugged, and suddenly, the sound of the bell seemed to echo throughout the whole mansion, making Judy lower her ears behind her head. After the bell stopped ringing a loud booming voice came over the speakers probably throughout the mansion.

"Mammals! Hide and seek is over! Please return to the room where we first began the game." came the voice over the speakers. As the announcement was repeated once more the pair breathed a sigh of relief and walked back to the room where they were at in the beginning when they were first told they would be playing a game. Once all the mammals were back, only a third of the mammals were now present. Nick shivered, knowing the fate of the ones who weren't present while Judy was clueless, as shown on her face. _If possible, I won't tell her. But I doubt it can be avoided for long._ He smiled at himself, he was being ridiculous. Why didn't he want Judy to know about it? Why was he so determined to keep it a secret? Wouldn't it be better if she knew? The questions were not answered as time did not wait for him to do so. He was once again tied up and he as well as other males were thrown into a room with dim lighting after descending some flights of stairs. Classic torture tools and machines lay bare and there to show all its bloody glory as James and a few other of his accomplices wore wicked grins as they prepared to show what _really_ happened in the Scarleski mansion. Judy and the other females were shoved into a giant cell and were then chained to the wall by their wrists, having them not tied up in rope after the game and instead pushed into this place forcefully by large mammals after descending about three flights of stairs to Judy's calculation. Their captors held bowls of something…..revolting.

"Please don't tell me that's…." Judy managed to mumble before a red and slimey thing was shoved into her mouth, the tale of how the contents in the bowls came about spilling from their captors lips maliciously. Now there they were, spending the days sharing a cell with mammals they didn't know and got to know, each week they would switch who they would be sitting with in the shared cell for the week. Each monday came around like a nightmare in a loop. The rest of the days in the week were just continuous torture. Switching from being beat up with clubs, spears and whips for hours on end or having raw red 'food' stuffed in their mouths endlessly until a certain time that Judy and Nick could muster no strength to find out. Slowly, both the pair's hopes of getting out was being diminished but they still hung on baselessly to that hope that they would be found. For weeks, it had stayed that way and finally, Judy had a plan to break every mammal out of this hell including herself and Nick. She finally had real hope that they would escape. They couldn't rely on the ZPD to rescue them. The other officers might still be trying to solve the case they heard about a few weeks ago and they didn't even know where the pair were located! The Scarleski mansion was rumoured to have feet, each time the mansion would stay in the same spot for who knew how long and then later seem to disappear as somemammal tries to find it. So now that Judy had thought of a plan and she knew where and when she was she was going to break out. Not by herself but with _all_ of the mammals still suffering here. She had chanced upon the grand entrance of the mansion with Nick a few days ago and an idea struck her. _Just a few more days and I'll make sure that every single mammal here is free from this wretched mansion!_ She quietly smiled as she thought this. Her amethyst orbs shining with determination which was missed by the guards walking by her cell she now sat in with an exhausted and rundown Nick. She placed a paw softly on his cheek and he seemed to lean into her paw. She smiled and whispered into his ear.

"Just hang on a little longer. We'll get out of here soon." She pulled and turned away, wanting the tod to sleep a little longer as she knew he was more worn out then she today. But she was unaware that the tod's ear had twitched and his lips had tugged up a little into a small smile as she turned away. He opened an eye and looked at the doe's back.

"Sure thing Carrots." He whispered quietly, making sure Judy couldn't hear him and fell back asleep.

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 **A/N: I think I did pretty good for this chapter, broke my record for my word count, excluding the ANs, it's 4690. And, well, I think some might be wondering if I got off track so if there's any of you readers who think that I assure you that I'm on track still. Just a little detour.**

 **Now. Reviews!**

 **Zootopian Fulf - Terribly sorry for my mess up. I was distracted by the drama on TV and I get distracted a lot. . Thank you, as always, for your reviews! And I hope you'll like what is next to come. XD  
**

 **Okay! I have finally updated this and well, I wanna do a little drawing. I'm drawing Nick with a help of a tutorial and I'm slightly proud that I've done well so far. But my drawing skills are average so :P Might post it on DA for fun, who knows. Anywho! Not to bore you any longer reading this so I've come to the end of this chapter and the next will (hopefully) be up soon! Until then... Till next time! Ciao~**


	17. Chapter 17: Red History II

**A/N: Hiya folks! It's been a _very_ long time but I'm back! I have almost absolutely no excuse for not updating in so long but I'll try to update more regularly while I try to escape the claws of procrastination. Apologies for not updating as early and as regularly as I should have and I foresee that it might happen again but regardless, I'll try posting more regularly. Now! Grab a comfy seat, a nice snack(s) and whatever it is you're using to read this and enjoy!**

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Chapter 17: Red History II

Judy stared out of the metal bars and at the dark and damp dirt of the basement. Her ears slightly limp but alert. The plan was simple. Act like they had gone savage. Judy had found out a few gloomy days before that James had hired scientists do some test and experiments for him. What were they about? Replicating and making a stronger Nighthowler serum. On the missing mammals case, the pair had fooled Bellweather into revealing her true motives and the ZPD arrested her for her crimes. It was said that Nighthowlers everywhere were wiped and not even one has been seen till this day. That was what the public thought. In actuality, mammals doing shady business in the blackmarket had took some Nighthowler seeds before the blue flowers were wiped and started to sell the flowers for money where the law couldn't reach them. Judy had coincidentally overhead a pair of mammals in lab coats who happened to be in the kitchen where she had hid. She was separated from Nick on a Monday when they were 'playing' hide and seek as usual when they were faced with two halls and James around the bend behind them and almost reaching their location and spotting them. They had rushed hurriedly in different directions, Judy had turned sharply and pushed into the metal doors and hid in one of the cupboards. Just as a few minutes passed, she thought that it was safe when the doors had swung open and two rams in lab coats entered the room, one, she recognized was Doug.

 _A few days ago_

"So? Do ya think you can find them?" asked the ram beside Doug as he brewed himself some coffee. The rich aroma tickling Judy's nose.

"Please. I hit 15 mammals from a polar bear to an otter with the Nighthowler serum when I was working for Dawn. I can find weak little mammals." He bragged, his chest puffing out. Doug grabbed some salad from the fridge and passed a bowl to the other ram before eating his own. The other ram eyed him.

"Yeah, sure. I bet that I'd find more than you can, that's for sure." Doug scowled at the other ram.

"You wanna bet John?" John raised his hooves in surrender.

"Fine. Be that way." He grumbled under his breath as he took a sip of his coffee. Judy's back ached and pleaded for her just to stand up and stretch but she wouldn't and couldn't do so. She couldn't give away her cover and she didn't want to be exposed and out in the open, just awaiting her death. She peeked through the gap of the cupboard doors and squinted as rays of light from the kitchen lights pierced through the gap. Doug was now in front of the cupboard she had hid in and was lazily shaking pepper into his salad bowl, the small dusts of the pepper floated down and into the gap, now tickling Judy's nose and threatening to make her sneeze. She held her breath as she felt the itch in her nose, it twitching rapidly as she tried to control the incoming sneeze. But she couldn't hold in the itch in her nose any longer and she sneezed. Loudly as another sound overlapped it. The sound of glass breaking and crashing onto the floor. Judy rubbed her nose after her big sneeze and looked out the gap and saw pieces of glass laying about dangerously everywhere like misshapen blades.

"Now look at what you've done John, you broke boss James's favorite tea set! What are you gonna do about it now?" John's head swiveled towards Doug, anger evident in his eyes.

"What am _I_ gonna do about it?! Then what about you?"

"Me!? I didn't do anything!" The two rams quickly got into a heated argument, getting more intense by the moment and and Judy was soon watching the two like she was at a very fast-moving ping pong tournament. The words hurled being the ball that flew across the table over the net faster and faster almost as if it would reach the speed of light. As she watched the never ending ping pong match, the doe wished that it would end soon and they'd leave so that she could stretch. Her joints and back were aching and she needed the stretch badly. She was almost tempted to just disregard the presence of the two rams and walk out the cupboard just to stretch and hear her joints pop but she knew that she would be gambling with her life on the line if the rams saw her here and alerted James she was here and decided against stepping out of the cramped space and stretching as it seemed the safest to do so. The two rams seemed to have resolved their argument and were now calmly chatting as they ate.

"Boss James is very determined to have Zootopia under his control doesn't he?" asked John as he sipped a new hot cup of coffee, the last one had gone cold during he and Doug's argument.

"Obviously you dumbass. He's been meaning to for a long time coming anyways." He took a sip of his own cup of coffee. "Was determined enough to track me down and put me in his little lab just so that Zootopia would be his and his wife's." John hummed in thought and the doors to the kitchen once again swung open. In the wide doorway was James and the two rams stiffened slightly as he approached. _Speak of the devil._ Judy thought.

"You two. How is the new Nighthowler serum?" The rams tried not to tremble under the glowing yellow eyes of the tiger looming over them.

"It's coming along well sir, we have almost figured it out." To John's credit, he didn't stutter when he spoke or tremble obviously but any mammal could smell that tinge of fear he gave off. Judy stayed extremely silent in that small cupboard, willing the tiger to be done with his business and leave so she could live another day. She trembled as the tiger continued to converse with the two rams about their Nighthowler project, she kept as still and silent as possible until they finally finished talking and the tiger left. The tension in the room drained as the footsteps of the tiger faded away and he once again went hunting for the numerous mammals hiding in the house. The rams breathed a heavy sigh of relief as they finished up their food and started to end their break.

"Boss James is really obsessed about the new serum, if we don't get it done soon we'll probably be one of them mammals he's hunting right now." Doug nodded his head silently and took the last bite of his salad.

"We'll get it done soon, and after that we can have the fun, the money, and after we finally get out of here we'll make more money." John laughed and his round pot belly shook.

"Then let's get this break over with, we've got a serum to make and money to take." The two cleaned up and finally, the room was finally devoid of any life but the grey doe in the cupboard. She crawled out cautiously, careful not to step on the glass fragments as she came out and finally got her long awaited stretch. She heard the pleasant sound of her bones popping and flexed her limbs. _Good thing I used that mask musk shampoo I found._ She thought and thanked her lucky stars that a rhino had threw the shampoo at her and screamed at her about how she stank of rotten and dead meat in a random rage. Her mind now stored the valuable information she had learnt into the back of her mind as she carefully listened for sounds outside the door. After she was sure it was silent she warily pushed opened the door, looked both ways quickly before making her way elsewhere to hide. In this mansion, it was not wise to stay in one spot. James knew every nook and cranny of it and would always do a brief scan of the room or a very thorough search if he felt like it and it was almost impossible to get away from the room before he spotted you.

Judy's ears listened and alerted her of any sound anywhere around her as she darted around the mansion, keeping her footfalls light to minimize any sound that she would make. She darted into a room with maroon red doors when she heard the sound of footsteps from behind her and around a corner. She quickly and quietly closed the door and looked about the room for a hiding spot. The room was as red as roses and the colour was overbearing and a bit too much. Many different shades of red covered the room from the curtains to the rugs. It seemed like she was in a grand bedroom and belonged to a woman judging from all the make up on the dresser. Judy's eyes landed on the chest at the end of a lion-sized bed and she lifted the heavy lid and clambered inside, shutting the lid quietly as she heard the footsteps became louder. She looked through the keyhole and saw the door opening, holding her breath she peeked at the mammal who had came in and she was filled with relief and delight as he walked into the room, looking about warily. She slowly opened the lid and the red figure flinched before his emerald eyes widened, many swirling emotions within them.

"Judy!" He ran over to the chest and lifted the lid before hefting her out of the chest and setting her feet on the floor. "Carrots, where were you?" She smiled, happy that the fox cared so much about her.

"When we were running from James I went the other way and went into the kitchen, he came afterwards but he didn't find me." Nick sighed, relieved and didn't think about his next action. He hugged her tightly, pulling the doe into his embrace tightly and not letting her go. The grey doe smiled happily and pat his back in reassurance, snuggling into his chest and enjoying the beat of his heart. It was beating rapidly, not very fast like he had been running but like he was cooling down after a run. It delighted Judy that Nick was this worried about her and wished the moment wouldn't end. They held each other for quite a while before Nick reluctantly let go of her and looked into her bright amethyst eyes which shone like jewels in the sunlight streaming in from the windows. He saw the reluctance in her gaze but they shouldn't stay in one place too long if they learn't anything during the hide and seek game they played with James for so long.

"Um, well, I think we should get moving, we've been here long enough. James might come and search this room soon." He gently let her go, their fingers lingered a little longer together before they parted. The two flinched as they heard the sound of footsteps and scrambled into the chest that was still open and shut the lid as quietly as they could. They waited with their muzzles clamped shut and their ears alert. Judy looked out through the keyhole of the chest buts saw that no one entered the room. After counting to a hundred they lifted the lid cautiously, quickly leaping out and shutting the lid quietly. They tiptoed to the door and listened for even the faintest sound of footfalls or breathing. When they were sure that there was no mammal on the other side the speaker crackled to life, alerting them of the end of the game and the time when torture would resume. Lately, the tiger had devised more ways to torture the mammals and more mammals were losing hope in being found at a faster rate and the number of mammals brought into this place increased steadily, as well as the number who lost their lives had started to increase as more time passed. Judy feared for what came next as the cycle continued but this time she had an idea. An idea that would possibly allow all the mammals here to be free and back with their loved ones outside this wretched mansion. It wasn't very hard. But motivating the mammals into action was harder than she thought it would be. Nick, for one, was also losing hope and his cockiness that Judy had come to adore over the years and now, she saw that she had a chance to not only restore the spirit and happiness of these mammals still here and alive but to bring back the Nick she once knew.

 _Present time_

"Judy, are you sure it's gonna work?" Nick whispered to her, slightly doubtful of his partner's plan. It was a plan with a _very_ low chance of success but it was better than nothing and dying in misery here. The grey doe nodded, a flame of determination growing in her amethyst orbs.

"Very sure. All that we need to do is run slower, make sure the serum hits the covered parts, and make a run for the entrance."

"Yeah….. But how are we going to get past the guards at the entrance?" Judy looked at Nick and spoke in a confident tone.

"With the help of some friends of mine." Nick raised a brow and looked at the hyped up doe in front of him. For all these days that they've been down underground Judy had lost spirit and hope slowly only to bounce back up and with a plan to get out. He shook his head in disbelief, who would have thought that this bunny could bear with all the horrendous things down here and still be able to put on such a bright smile? He chuckled as she bounced on the balls of her feet, her eyes filled with determination as she radiated with confidence.

"So… Who _are_ these friends of yours?" Judy smirked at the tod.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." she said smugly and scanned around the outside of their cell for the night, seeming to look for something. _Or maybe some-_ one. He thought but kept himself from asking questions the doe would not seem to answer at the moment and instead leaned back on cold floor of the cell, looking up at the dark ceiling. These nights were one of the nights he felt more comfortable. The nights where he ended up with Judy as his cellmate. She was somehow always able to comfort him, change him, draw out all the reactions he knew he would be able to suppress if he were with anyone else. But with her everything seemed at ease, comfortable, fine even. He smiled, he was so gloomy and depressed a few days before. He could see himself slowly becoming like the rest when he took the occasional look in the mirror when he needed to go to the restroom at night. Dead eyes, seemingly dull fur, a sense of gloom emitted from himself. But now that his bunny had bounced back and was- wait. _His bunny?_ He blushed profusely as he shook the thought out of his mind, banishing it from the walls he had built around it. No, no, no, no, no. Judy has _not_ his bunny. She was his partner, and best friend but _that_ was simply just…. No, it couldn't possibly work out. He didn't even know if she was interested and that was the least of his worries. She was a _bunny_ and he was a _fox_ how on in Zootopia would it work out? And he was her natural predator thousands of years ago, preyed on her kind. What would she think about dating a predator, let alone her _natural_ predator. And what would her parents think about it? Even if Judy was okay with dating him It was very doubtful that her parents would accept the relationship easily or at all.

Nick's head desperately to sort and clear itself of its current thoughts while Judy scanned outside the cell, her hindpaw now tapping the damp floor impatiently for a certain someone to appear. Little did both know that a swirling tornado was waiting patiently for them to dash out open the door of the entrance and whisk them away.

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 **A/N: Thank you guys for reading thus far and hope you look forward to what I have in store! Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Why is the plan so simple? Can't it be like the smaller mammals go climbing through the air ducts and then getting out successfully and then later getting a rescue team to get the much larger mammals out?' Well, I'm dumb. Deal with it. And I'm sorry I am but I promise that it won't look as easy as it sounds (*cough*almost guaranteed*cough*) and I will try my very best to put up the next chapter sooner.**

 **Now, not very many reviews so I'll just say thanks to Zootopian Fulf for encouraging me and reviewing this story. Thank you very much!**

 **Thanks to you guys who have read thus far and enjoyed it and... yeah. Review and comment and give criticism (constructive ones please) if you want and all that and I'll just leave it at that, lol. Until next time! Ciao~**


	18. Chapter 18: Escape

**A/N: Hiya folks! I finally started to post up my chapters on time and for this chapter I kinda went all out in writing. Now, grab a comfy seat, a tasty snack(s), and whatever you're using to read this and enjoy!**

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Chapter 18: Escape

It was all going well, everyone was out of the mansion doors. Everyone except a single grey doe who was snarling as her slitted pupils glared at the large tiger before her. Judy glared at the looming figure of the tiger with hatred. As she firmly stayed where she was on all fours ,the flames licked at the flammable objects around her. She knew she had the advantage, as the tiger was much more badly wounded. No matter how huge and muscular he was, he was only a cowardly mammal who hid behind strong guards in black suits and sunglasses. Nick was around the corner outside the entrance, peeking in at her from the side of the doorway. He wanted to help, but she was there so that James wouldn't launch and kill the rest of the other mammals who were fleeing through the large gold gates of the mansion. He prayed that she would be alright as the flames grew. He gathered his courage and he exhaled deeply.

 _A few hours before_

"Alright Judy so….. You promise that we'll be able to get out?"

"I already told you June, I'll do everything I can to get us all out of here." The female wolf on the other side of the metal bars wasn't that odd of a sight. It was already dinner time and she, a maid, was bringing them their meal of stale bread and cold soup, or that was what it looked like. The wolf had soon became Judy's friend after they had been locked up here, or to be more exact the 7th night they were locked up in the cell. That day had been a tiring day. And the pair were suffering wounds or stomach pains from the 'food' that had been shoved down their throats. The wolf had tended to Judy's cell a few times in a row already and the two quickly found similarities between each other. June Marly was a grey wolf whose family didn't like that she wanted to work as a maid. They were against the idea and thought that working jobs like being officers at the ZPD, a security guard or even a businessmammal would be much more honourable than the work of a maid. Those jobs had dangers in and off shifts, but June wanted a much more peaceful way to live. She wanted to be a maid for she admired the spirit and cleaning skills of the maid in storybooks and since then started to go towards her simple dream. It was all but simple when she was kicked out of her house and forced to live on her own. But she never gave up and soon was accepted as a maid of the Scarleski household.

She worked hard and at times she felt hopeless, but she made friends among the staff to help her keep her spirits high throughout. But, reality was soon squishing her down when she found out what dark secrets the richest household in Zootopia held under the earth. A basement full of cells, the poor food given to the numerous prisoners held in those dusty and dirty cells, their lives being used as playthings of sorts to pass the time on Monday's till noon where they weren't fed but immediately brought to rooms so that the bodyguards had their fill of fun if they wanted. Stress relievers. She was horrified that some of her friends were among the large group and hence only three were left at her side as the others had disagreed with her and only saw the prisoners as nothing more but low lives for them to do as they please. She vowed to help these mammals but after all the years she found it almost impossible as James, the master of the house, managed things himself and made sure things went only his way. It was horrible and terrifying to see that he thought so little of the lives of innocent mammals who were less wealthy than he. It was then she met Judy when her hope for helping the mammals escape came back to life. It was very obvious that the small doe was determined to get all these poor souls out of here. She willingly helped Judy when the doe asked for her help and hence, now she was out of the cell of the doe and her fellow fox partner and in front of the white doors of the lab. She hadn't known about the place as she was not usually assigned to bring them their meals but she managed to trade places with one of her maid friends in order to get here. She stood in front of the doors and knocked.

"Lunch!" she called and she could hear the shifting of hooves and feet inside. A tiger had opened the door and gestured her inside. She bowed politely and rolled the cart fill with their lunch inside. There was a room where they ate their lunch in so she rolled the cart in and placed the food on the dining table inside. She quietly and discreetly scanned the room and observed the many mammals working on glowing and colorful liquids in test tubes.

"Hey girlie, you're not the usual. Usually it's that uh… little sheep." she turned to find a ram talking to her. She smiled politely.

"Yes, she asked to trade places for a while, she's a bit sickly you see." The ram hummed in thought before leaving the she-wolf alone. She breathed out a sigh before quietly, at least she wasn't suspected of doing anything. She turned to move out of the room when an arm stopped her. Her eyes locked onto the blue eyes of the owner of the arm and saw another grey wolf. He had a shit-eating grin on his face as he tried to look handsome.

"Hey there cutie, would you like to…. Hang out for a little bit later? We could have some… fun." She rolled her eyes. Admittedly she was a beauty among her species and she had this occur too many times to count in her life though she repeatedly shot those who approached her to have "fun" sometimes literally. She silently huffed as she smiled politely.

"No, thank you sir. I have to job to do so I have to get back to it quickly or the master will most certainly be dismayed. Now, good bye." She bowed and turned to go around him but he stopped her by trapping her against the wall.

"Aww. Come on sweetheart, I bet your job can wait. Besides, it's _after_ you work anyways." She snorted. This one was persistent. He suddenly yelped in pain and the others in the lab turned towards the sound before shrugging.

"That's. For calling me sweetheart." She hit his head hard. "And that. Is for keeping me from my job. Goodbye." She then left the room and huffed in annoyance. She had kicked him in the groin and it had been forever since she had needed to do that. She huffed again. _It was worth it though._ She thought. She walked a couple more steps from the lab doors with the cart pushing it until she reached a certain wall. The pillar was slightly off in color, not very obvious but she knew it was the one she was looking for. She reached to the bottom of the pillar and pressed a button-like decoration. The wall to the right of the pillar slid open easily and revealed a winding stairwell. She waved a passing butler over and passed him the cart before descending the stairs. It was well kept as it was not uncommon for the stairwell to be used by the staff of the household as it was where they took breaks and had their own rooms, making it seem like all the staff of the house disappeared at night.

She stopped just a level before the bottom and looked around, no one was coming up or going down. She exhaled a breath she was holding before she pulled on the torch, revealing that it was a lever to a hidden passage that opened up quickly. She slipped into the tight space before the door closed behind her with a soft 'thump'. She continued to walk on, her arms pinned to her side and her eyes looking straight ahead, focusing on the only source of light coming from the end of the passage. She scanned the area cautiously before coming out of the passage. The light on the ceiling shone bright as she entered the room, the weaponry. All the weapons from a sickle and chain to an iron ball was there and even had poison needles and spears. She carefully and quietly walked about the room, searching for one thing that Judy needed. Armour plating. June had been secretly bringing out all the armour plating she could find for all the mammals in the underground prison, as James's called it, and it wasn't very hard to find them after being in the room numerous times and taking them from the exact same spot for days already. She pulled some plating for smaller mammals this time and she hid it in a secret compartment of her outfit a large pocket under her dress. This was the last they needed and finally, today was the day they would all get out.

It was already past midnight and after that, Monday would arrive and at the brick of dawn the new Nighthowler serum would be completed, the lab staff would go about along with James at around then, looking for these innocent mammals to turn to savage mammals, lab rats so to say. If it succeeded it would be a nightmare for all of Zootopia. To say that it would become 'Dystopia' would be an understatement. She frowned as she got up and got out of the hidden room quickly. The others didn't know of the room as she had been the only one who saw James come down and take the weapons from the room whenever he needed it. She walked back out, scanning the area again, checking if anyone was around to catch her before she quietly and cautiously made her way to the underground prison again and snuck past the guards. No one would actually guard the room beyond the door of it so it was as simple as knocking out a guard, taking his clothes, dressing up, taking and hiding the plating and going past the guards at the door. Inside was mostly empty and Judy smiled when the she-wolf appeared in a guard's attire. The grey doe ran up to the metal bars of the cell.

"June, did you get it?" She said in a hushed tone and the wolf nodded, passing the armour to Judy as she looked over her shoulder to check if the guards outside had heard them, which luckily they didn't. The doe shrugged of her rags, put the armour on as June shielded her from the eyes of the other males in the room except Nick as the she-wolf couldn't do so from outside the bars and Judy then quickly put her rags back on again. It had been weeks since she had overheard the rams' conversation and she had been keeping an ear out for the conversations that might hold possible clues to when the serum would be done whenever she could. June had also offered to listen for any updates about the serum for the grey doe which the doe was very grateful that she had. The two nodded to each other and the she-wolf waved goodbye before leaving, the door closing heavily behind the maid. Judy jumped for joy, dawn was the time they would all wake up and be brought up, next would be fooling the guards and James till they all reached the entrance to bail out of this place. She grinned happily and the fire in her eyes continued to burn bright like the sun.

Nick stared at the excited form of the doe who had walked over and was now laying down next to him. Over the past few days, he came to understand that there was something about her that made his heart swell and beat like a drum. Made it dance for joy and seem to, yes it may sound a little cheesy, but he could kind of feel like it seemed to beat for her. Every move was graceful, every aspect of her's was beautiful, every laugh or giggle was melodic, everything she was seemed so…. _Perfect._ He shook his head to clear his thoughts, it wasn't the time to mull over it. He needed to get some rest to store up some energy for tomorrow's big event. He sighed, his mind had been occupied with the doe next to him these days and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even resist thinking about her at least three times daily. He was startled when something wrapped around his tail, making his fur stand on end in shock. He turned to see an incredibly cu- _cough_ adorable sight. Judy had fallen asleep and had hugged his tail tightly, a happy smile on her muzzle, even as he tried to pry her off she still held on firmly and didn't let go. He sighed, well, at least someone was going to get some good night's rest. He looked at her and smiled. He saw her shiver and he searched for something to cover her with but there was nothing. So he had to go to his last resort, it might get him kicked but when he wrapped his arms around her he could think that it would be worth the pain. The smaller mammal he had spooned in his arms and locked onto his tail now snuggled into his tail more and her tail wiggled slightly in happiness Nick chuckled and started to close his eyes. That night was one of the best nights of his life, even if it was in a cell filled with nothing but the damp and dirty floor and the cold.

The next morning, they were escorted up to the floor above as usual and after James's usual small talk and informing them about some 'special guests' joining in, he let them all roam, they quickly spread out, trying not to give away that they had a plan, luckily it wasn't so hard as they all always wanted to just run away from him instantly. After they were all set and they had found a spot where it was far enough from the entrance but also quite near, they quickly counted to different timings before advancing closer and closer to the entrance as they went, all present prisoners were already ready and armed with strategies and methods and routes of escape. They knew some of the hidden passageways and some hidden hiding spots as well as where to turn to likely make any pursers to lose their trial thanks to June making a map of the house as well as the hidden passageways. The lab staff and James were soon roaming the house as the prisoners moved cautiously about. No kids were present in their group so it was one advantage they had that they didn't need to worry about young kits being hurt and all had learnt how to put on a convincing show of savagery. It was already past an hour when the first shot of the serum was made, one of the lab staff shot a prisoner and said prisoner had then put on an act as the bullet had hit armour plating and he made sure that it was convincing. A few more shots as the time went by and the prisoners discreetly went closer and closer to their goal, their eyes on the prize and to the doorway to victory. What they didn't know was that the outside of the mansion was bustling with mammals. There was a fair being held very close by and James didn't really care about it as he thought that the prisoners would not even be able to get out of the mansion. A few minutes later, he was proven wrong. The ones shot ran for the door on all fours, the other prisoners also quickly scurried out, slamming the door wide open and running at full speed to the gates were the 'guards' stood. What was going on? Did they really think they could get out? This mansion had the highest security tech and wouldn't let them even past the gates. He was confused and surprised when a bullet flew and hit him at the back of his knee as a grey blur rushed past his feet, he could feel his mind being overtaken, it was strong and he couldn't stop it. He roared and soon the lab staff and prisoners were running for their lives. Vases, furniture, walls, pillars, the lush carpets, all the expensive things in the house were torn, ripped, thrown, destroyed even as the tiger went on a rampage, on all fours like his ancestors of the past. His eyes were glowing yellow, his pupils slits, and his claws were out and he was seeing red all around.

Judy on the other paw was fighting a war in her mind, trying to suppress the effects of the serum. She had been hit and it didn't hit the armour plates she wore and the serum was now starting to bring out the instincts that was buried many years ago and going haywire. She groaned and held her head in one paw, trying to fight any thoughts of just fleeing and causing as much chaos as James right at the moment. But it didn't work very well as she started to run on all fours, and most things now seemed red all around her. She heard the sound of the gates creak open as she neared the entrance, this was it, they were free! She dashed towards the door, Nick following close behind the her. Suddenly, there was a burst of a cannon and a net was shot at James. He struggled and roared, managing to get the large net of himself. Next thing Judy knew, more cannons fired and James got hit by nets and bullets as well as some other furniture and sharp objects as the guards panicked and threw, slashed and stabbed at him and the nets flew in, shot by someone outside. Nick dashed out and spotted a crowd of prisoners hiding behind the chief and the officers of precinct 1 who were firing nets and tranqs at the struggling tiger. He roared each time he got a new wound and soon the guards ran out frantically as he rushed towards them and tried to slash them with his claws. The tiger was oozing with blood and rained in wounds as he panted hard. Judy was the last one in the mansion, having her path blocked by a chair that happened to land in front of her she jumped over it quickly, she was going to make it! But, it didn't happen as she saw that James had her eyes locked on her and was now on two feet, quickly dashing towards her and grabbing her she was now held hostage as she kicked and squirmed, trying her hardest to get out. The tiger looked at the ZPD, smiling. They stopped firing their tranqs and nets as they glared at the tiger. James showed them the struggling and slightly savage doe and smirked.

"You want her safe and sound? Then let's have a deal, you don't imprison me. You let me go. If you don't, she is going to die. Painfully." The officers stiffened, they knew it was a deal with heavy consequences weighing on each choice. If they let the tiger go free there would be more chances for the whole of Zootopia to go savage. If they didn't, one of their best officers of the city, their friend and colleague would die as the price. It was the whole city, or the life of the doe who was more than just an officer to them as well as Zootopia. It was their duty against their personal emotions. Bogo stood, glaring at the tiger as the large feline smirked in victory. Nick looked on, he had run ahead of Judy when her way was blocked off by the chair, just a few steps from the door and had tried to turn back to help her when the tiger picked her up. He glared at James, his blood was boiling under his fur and he itched to pry Judy out of the tiger's paws but he couldn't do a thing. The tiger had currently enough strength to crush her ribs with just the minimal amount of strength and Judy would no doubt be a dead bunny. _Think… Think! I need to think of a way to save Judy!_ He tried to urged his mind to think, so many things could go wrong or right and his brain seemed to shut off as he was panicked and was he struggled with his thoughts. Judy looked at Bogo.

"Chief! Don't worry about me! Think about the city!" The chief stared at her at her shout and he hardened his gaze. Hopps was right, he needed to save the city. He had grown to like her better over the time spent in the precinct with her but his duty still came first. He breathed out a sigh.

"James Scarleski, you're under arrest for murder and-" The tiger cursed and dropped the bunny before Bogo could finish, the officers readied their cannons and tranqs, as well as their other weapons of offence and defence.

"Sure then chief. Then….. See you." There was no point killing the doe. It was pointless. It was time for Plan B. He lit a flame with a lighter in his paw, Judy got on all fours and snarled at the tiger. He smirked well this was convenient. It would be two birds with one stone, getting rid of a hindrance to his plans _and_ he was able to escape to carry out his plans another day. _I'm a genius!_ He thought. He could just stand there and all would be fine. Under him was a trapdoor to the underground sewer system and from there he could escape easily.

 _Present time_

James dropped the lighter and everything went in slow motion, the lighter hitting the floor, the flames licking the red carpet and a fire growing bigger and stronger as it started to consume all of the flammable items and furniture in the mansion. Judy planted herself firmly, keeping her glare with the tiger she was not letting him out of her sight. If he escaped, it would be a disaster for Zootopia. His smile grew wider as he saw the bunny in such a state, she was almost giving in to the effects of the serum. He stood there, staring down at her. He had a button in his sleeve that he pressed as well after he had dropped the lighter and several places fell to ruins as he had placed several bombs all over the mansion for when he most needed to destroy the mansion. It cost nothing to James as he stood here, smiling down at Judy with a mocking look.

From the mansion grew a large flower of red, orange and yellow, the mansion was no more. As it was now only ashes and remains.

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 **A/N: Did pretty well I think. Welp. Hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter and let's hope I don't procrastinate again and post it after next week. Lol. And I also realized that I didn't reply to the reviews last chapter, oops.**

 **Zootopian Fluf - Lol, agreeable. And um, please let me know of your thoughts on the plan ^^ Not very great is it? Lol**

 **Anywho! Thanks for reading thus far and I don't really have much to say this round so. Until next time! Ciao!**


	19. Chapter 19: The sibling

**A/N: It's been a very long time since I've updated... As usual. I'm getting real lazy this time and I've written a quite short chapter and I think after this, it'll be pretty interesting ^^. But for now, find a comfy seat, a snack or two and whatever it is you're reading this with and enjoy!**

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Chapter 19: The sibling

Judy opened her eyes. All around her was white blurs until her eyes focused and she saw that she was in a hospital. All around her were the chatters and murmurs of conversation but she didn't pay attention to it as her eyes widened and she scanned around the room hurriedly. Her eyes locked with emerald orbs, looking right back at her and she sighed in relief. The emerald eyed mammal smiled at her from across the room.

"Hey there Fluff." she was so happy to hear his voice, a smile appeared as she giggled softly.

"Hey Nick." The tod put down a bouquet of flowers on her lap and she took a whiff of the fresh scents. He smiled as he saw her delight and chuckled as she reached for one and ate it. She raised a brow at him as she chewed the flower in her mouth. "What?" He shook his head.

"Nothing. Just thinking that you were-"

"Don't you dare say that word Nicolas!" she glared at him and he raised his paws in defense and laughed.

"Okay, okay. I won't say it." she smiled again and continued to munch on the flowers. He watched her silently, a small smile on his muzzle. He couldn't help think it was cute really and he wanted her to let him say it. _She'll let me say it….. In my dreams._ He thought.

But that was long ago now. That time was peaceful. A mammal that escaped the mansion before them made the call to the ZPD in their panic to tell them about the situation in the mansion. The medics had whisked the injured and the wounded to the hospital. Judy had seen the tiger stand along in the flames of the mansion without moving as Nick dragged her out of the mansion just before the explosion happened and they were sure that they wouldn't see the tiger again….. But what was predictable about reality was the unpredictability of it.

"Nick." He heard her whine and he hugged her closer to his chest. He hugged her for a few moments longer before he pushed him away slowly, a new fire of determination in her eyes as she took a deep breath. "We have to go investigate."

"But-"

"He might be out there, somewhere selling catnip again, Nick. We have to stop and arrest him either way, he can't be forgiven for hurting and killing those mammals." he was thoughtful for a bit before he sighed and nodded. He was honestly worried something bad would happen again but she was right.

"You're right. Let's go." They nodded and they moved, sticking close to the shadows as they inched closer to the doors of the room the chief or any one of their colleagues would not like it but they had to move. Now. Time was off the essense and they need to make their move soon or who knew what would happen next? With soft footfalls and silenced movements they made it out of the hospital, racing to the district to grab some equipment.

* * *

They had found nothing of the tiger years ago. But now. It was going to be different.

"So, what's the plan Carrots?"

Her eyes surveyed the dark room slowly and caught sight of both of the rhinos about to nod off and she had an idea. She pulled out her tranq. "We'll tranq them and sneak past them. It wouldn't be unnatural because they're about to nod off anyways" He nodded and pulled out his own tranq, they aimed carefully and shot the two rhinos at the same time. Their eyes bulged out as they were shot before they started to say and collapsed against the walls nearby. They quickly rushed forward towards the door and stopped short of bursting through it. Judy put her ears to the door and listened for a sound, once she confirmed there was no sound coming from the other side of the door she nodded to Nick silently and they slowly opened the door a crack.

They saw a room on the other side that looked old and run down, spiderwebs hung from dark corners and above them like Halloween ornaments. They slowly made their way into the room slowly and they heard the sound of clicking from further into the room, they slowly walked towards the source of the sound the sounds of conversation got louder.

"Darling, the we're almost ready. Just wait a little longer and we'll have the whole of Zootopia in our paws." their ears went back at the sound of James's voice.

"That's wonderful honey! I can't wait for Zootopia to be ours!" a shrill and seemingly cute female voice replied and the pair looked at each other in silent question, both shrugging. Who was the mammal with the shrill voice? Their attention turned back to the conversation a wall away.

"Well, darling. I'll get you some tea, wait here."

"Oh thank you honey!" They folded their ears back at the loud exclamation as they heard the tiger move away. Moments after they heard grumbling from the female voice. "Why is he taking so long? If he let _me_ do it everything would be _mine_ by now!" Judy's ears rose higher and took out her carrot pen, thinking it a good time to gather some evidence.

"We should've used the new NightHowler serum that he made years ago! If he left it to _me_ , Carla Bellwether!" time froze as the pair just hid behind the wall in shock. The voice continued to rant until they were snapped out of their trance by the squeaking of a door opening.

"Darling, I've made some Earl Grey."

"Oh thank you honey!" the voice returned to being cheery immediately and the tod and doe looked at each other in confusion. Dawn Bellwether had a sister? Judy jolted and breathed a sigh of relief, she had been so shocked that she froze but her thumb was still pressing the record button so whatever they had missed had been recorded. She released the button and she turned to look at Nick, one ear towards the couple behind the wall.

"We should go before we get caught. Who knows what they'd would do to us if he found out." He nodded in responce and they quietly slipped out of the doors. Luckily the the rhinos were still knocked out and they successfully slipped out of the cinema and made their way to the cruiser. They leaned on the vehicle for a while, and sighed as the release some of the tension from recalling such awful memories. After they calmed Nick spoke and broke the silence between them.

"We have to get this recording to Bogo, quick." Judy nodded her head and opened the door to the driver's seat.

The tod went to the other side and opened the door on opposite side and climbed on. Strapping their seatbelts on quickly as none of them wanted to be there any longer. They quickly rushed back to the precinct, even though they didn't run they panted a little as they hurriedly entered the station and reached Clawhauser's desk. The horrible memories of the past now vivid in their minds as they tried their hardest to toss them away at least until they got back to the apartment. The chubby cheetah at the desk looked up from his phone at the sound of panting from beyond the desk and quickly got up to address the pair, worried.

"Hey you two did something happen?" They nervously looked at one another and took deep breaths before looking at the cheetah.

"Clawhauser, we need to see the chief." The doe looked at the cheetah, her face serious and tense.

"Now?"

"Now!" Both of them shouted in sync and the cheetah hurriedly nodded and informed Bogo about them going to his office. That pair panted and ran to the the buffalo's office and hurriedly knocked on the door.

"Come in." It was a second after that they were already in the room and sitting on the chair in front of the chief's desk that was still way too big for them and staring right at the chief. Bogo could sense the serious aura just leaking from them and he silently sat a little straighter, though not noticeably. "So? What is it?"

"Sir, we think you should hear this." The doe said gravely as she held out the carrot pen. The buffalo took the pen and pressed the record button, from it came the voice he never heard before, shrill and high that hurt his ears to hear but when it ended he looked at the two officers in front of them.

"Where did you get this?" Nick moved to answer.

"We were at the old abandoned cinema located near Savanna Square and the place this was recorded is in room five." The chief eyed the two of them.

"And why were the two of you there?" They gulped and Nick stuttered out a laugh.

"Ah, um. We just wanted to check the place out…..?" He grimaced. _Bad lie Wilde. Now you're done for._ The chief eyed the both of them for a moment longer before turning his eyes on the carrot pen in his hoof.

"Whatever, you did a good job getting this. I'll take this to the detectives. Good job officer Hopps, Wilde." The pair smiled at each other but a cough from the buffalo brought their attention back to him. "For now, you've done a great job getting a hold of this evidence. But, you'll still need to track down Grey. He's a criminal we'd like behind bars. Understood?" The pair nodded and the buffalo snorted. "Dismissed!"

The two walked out of his office and sighed as they walked to the cruiser slowly. They had obtained valuable evidence, but even if they wanted a break Bogo was right. They still needed to track down Grey and put him behind bars. The got on the cruiser and opened the file they had left in there. The doe scanned through the file in thought.

"So, it says that the rest of the places where there are mammals are held are also three warehouses at the docks, some in an underground part of some of the houses of the wealthy in Zootopia and one in an old mansion in the Nocturnal district." The tod nodded.

"That's a lot of places, and that means a lot of mammals have been captured and hidden. But where could that wolf be hiding?" They flipped a few pages and found their answer.

"He's somewhere in Savanna Square or the Canal district." They closed the file and once again buckled their seatbelts. "Alright, ready partner?" The tod nodded.

"Ready." She stepped on the gas and sped off from the station in search for the wolf.

* * *

"That dumb tiger, he should let _me_ do the work. He can't do it right!" Carla stormed and grumbled as she walked up the stairs of their 'home' in all honesty it was just an abandoned building rumored to be haunted by their previous owners. To her though, it was just a crappy old house with a ton of spider webs. "I'm sick, and tired for waiting for him to get things done. If I did it Zootopia would have been mine by now." She grumbled but she hadn't a choice. She had almost no influence nor power. She growled as she sat on the bed of the tidied room they were using. No, she had to be patient. James might be incompetent but he had power and influence. She needed him to make her plan work. She exhaled deeply and she felt better. Calmer. Good.

She got off the bed with a smile on her face as she changed into nicer and a much more formal wear. Soon, was her important appointment. And she couldn't miss it.

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 **A/N: Welp! That's it for this chapter and I hope you guys enjoyed it leisurely.**

 **And to my dear friend Zootopian Fulf, I thank ya for reviewing and reading this story of mine and I'm glad that you liked the plan! And I'm glad you were impressed!**

 **Honestly not very good with the planning beforepaw thing lol, but I'll try my very best to improve! Thank you guys for reading thus far and I hope you'll keep reading on ^^. That's all I got for now so. Until next time! Ciao!**

P.S. I know it's been a damn long time and I apologize for mixing up the whole thing a little bit. A part has been rewritten so it makes more sense, so please forgive me for my mess up.


	20. Chapter 20: Can't you see?

**A/N: Walks in after months of not updating.** **W-woah... WHAT YEAR IS IT?!???!!?!?** **Jk. I know its been a long, long, long long, long time but I'm back! Ish. School and procrastination does _not_ mix well. Anywho. I know you guys might be mad I _finally_ updated after so, so, so, so, long. But. I have to start again somewhere. So. I have written a chapter though please forgive me for being lazy and just writing something close to 2k but not quite.** **What's that?... Yes I know I'm lazy, that's what I've been saying. _Huffs_** **Anywho. Without further ado, I think you'll enjoy what madness I have built up by being irritated at school, hehe, so grab a seat, a healthy snack, and whatever you're using to read this and... Enjoy**

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Chapter 20: Can't you see?

They arrived in Savanna Central, the bustling and humid place a sight to behold under the rays of the setting sun. The nights were cool compared to the heated days of the area but that evening was not one to be spent leisurely. The chief had quickly sent them back to their original task of finding the wolf Grey and they had immediately set to work to make up for lost time. Their minds completely focused on tracking down the wolf as their sipped on coffee to keep their energy going after that mentally exhausting experience. The pair's cruiser parked in a hidden alley, closing the doors quietly so as to not bother the residents of the area. Judy opened the file again, her brows furrowing. Where could that wolf be? She searched over all possible places in her mind, mapping out and marking them before closing the file. Looking at her partner she gestured from him to follow her. He nodded and did as so, walking cautiously behind the doe as his eyes searched for any suspicious figure or scent. They were in Lion's Gate, a part of Savanna Central that resided near the sea surrounding Zootopia, the beaches a pleasant place to spend romantic moonlight strolls near salty waves that rush onto shore and back to the sea repeatedly in small laps. They walked further into the neighbourhood cautiously, recalling that they were to find a small house near the beach, it was a two-story building with a calm view of the sea. Abandoned but still in good condition. They walked on, the silence all around them seemingly eerie, as if there was something was going to pop out of an alley or dark patch of shadows and consume them. Their faces were serious and turned tense as they approached the said building, no lights or even a shadow of a moving figure through a window could be seen. The paint of green was slowly being peeled off the building over the time it spent standing alone and uncared for.

Nick sucked in a breath as he looked at the building, feeling the eeriness just leaking out of it.

"Welp, you ready Carrots?"

She looked at him and nodded, her lips pursed in a thin line as she took a step forward.

"Yeah. Let's do this, Slick."

They knocked on the door, but as they had expected there was no reply. It was eerily silent, the only sound coming from a window with a broken latch, flapping and squeaking on its hinges as it was blown around by the wind. Judy reached for the knob, half expecting it to be locked but it opened up easily, the door slowly creeking open as she pushed it open wider. It was entirely dark inside, the moonlight the only source of light that helped them see into the dark house. The wolf had surely hidden his tracks well or they would've already had a lead to find him. Not even a scent or hair of the mammal could be seen, the house interior showing no signs of being moved around or even touched in the past year or longer. How could it be that the wolf was hiding here when nothing seemed out of place and nothing seemed to have been used, or even touched in years? Their brows were furrowed as they walked around the house, the creek of the floorboards making their ears flick, their senses heightened and aon alert as they scanned about. The sound of the wind and squeaking window was the only sound they heard until they got to the stairs. The stairs had holes in it, weak planks coated with a thick layer of dust as if a thick layer of sugar powder on a cake. They walked up slowly, silence ever filling their ears until they heard a single, clear click beneath their feet. They looked down, finally noticing the hidden pressure plate on the step, Nick's foot over it. Their foreheads beaded with perspiration, bodies tense and almost frozen with fear as they awaited for the trap to spring on them. But for a long while, nothing moved or even made a sound. Until, a light flashed on. Their ears straightened up, alert as they nod to each other and quietly made their way to the room. It was up the flight of creaky steps, and the door furthest to the right from their view. They cautiously approached the room, the light spilling from the spaces around the door.

Click. Click. Clink.

The sound of utensils being used could be heard from the other side.

Clink. Click. Clatter.

It sounded like whatever utensil being used was dropped, almost tiredly. A sigh came from the other side, footsteps heard from there.

"What's wrong? Can't stand the food anymore Grey?" A low voice rumbled, chuckling.

"Even if I'm blind, Pers, I know you've been vomiting out this "healthy" food." replied Grey, the pair outside was surprised by how young he sounded. About 20, maybe 25.

The low rumbling voice of the one he called Pers, laughed heartily. "Sheesh, ears haven't lose their sharpness huh."

"Definitely not. In fact. The two of you outside, please come in. And don't worry. I nor Pers here can't hurt anyone as of right now." The pair was shocked and tense as the wolf acknowledged their presence they intended to hide. Pursing their lips in a thin line as they looked at each other. The wolf on the other side calmly picked up his utensil and crunched on something. "Seriously. We have no weapons, nothing at all to fight back with. Please, just come in."

Judy's ears flicked in suspicion and Nick narrowed his eyes. He sense no malice nor any sign of the wolf lying from the mammal's voice. He grit his teeth, if they hid, what good would it do? He'd still know they were there and could choose to make a run for it. Only the canine didn't run at all. He looked at his partner and she frowned, looking back at him and nodding as she exhaled and opened the door. The pair stepped into the room and were greeted by the sight of the wolf chained to the wall by a chain and a wild boar who was also chained up on the other side of the room. Both were holding bowls of salad made of greens with a few fruits in it to. Grey nodded to the two as they stepped to the center of the room.

"Welcome. I hear a bunny's and a fox's footsteps. So I assume you must be the heroes of Zootopia, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde."

The pair's eyes widened. Nick stepping in between the wolf and Judy protectively.

"How did you conclude that from just hearing out footsteps?"

Grey chuckled, stirring the salad around in his bowl before forking a carrot and crunching it. "I've been training myself ever since I was blind to recognise sounds, touch, smell and taste in replacement for my sight. It's no surprise I can tell the difference since I've been blind since I was 9, being 29 now. It's been 20 years…." he leaned back, sunglasses sliding down his snout slightly before he pushed it back up. "That's a long time ago… But I'm sure you're not here to listen to old grandfather stories."

They narrowed their eyes at him, Judy's occasionally flickering to the wild boar on the other side of the room who was looking sickly and exhausted. Seemingly drained, the wolf in a similar state. Judy pursed her lips again and pointed her tranq at the boar as Nick raised his to aim at the wolf.

"We're here to take you to jail, Grey."

The wolf nodded and slumped against the wall, nodding quietly for a moment before smiling happily. "Thank you. Finally. Someone can end this madness."

Tears trickled down the wolf's cheeks and the pair was once again shocked silent. It was then the wild boar spoke.

"I'm sure you've heard some bad stuff about Grey, forcing couples to fight teaching then how to in secret, being a terrorist and bombing those place. He even had a comrade of his put a shock collar on you, Mr Wilde." Nick froze for a moment, paw going up slowly to touch the cold metal of the collar. The boar smiled apologetically. "But you can't blame him. He's actually a good mammal. Of it was anyone who needed to be punished by the ZPD, the mayor, even the citizens, the Lord even. It would be me."

The boar hung his head and Judy could see he was truly apologetic and regretful. Her sharp eyes didn't miss the scratches and wounds inflicted on his hoofs and arms, not exactly hidden as he was wearing a suit which sleeves were torn off and was also torn in some places. His pants, so formal and possibly neatly pressed before was now covered in splashes of mud, holes, tears and looked worn. For the first time, she felt that she didn't know something about this case. Or perhaps to say, two cases which were actually one. The terrorist attacks, the kidnappings. She furrowed her brows as she once again raised her tranq at the two, taking out gun.

"Whatever stories you have, we'll be hearing them at the station."

She looked back at her partner, making eye contact with him and they nodded, Nick bringing out a gun as well as they shot the chains to free the two mammals who didn't resist, move or protest. They were simply too tired and fell asleep in the back seat of the cruiser, cuffed and set for the trip to Precinct 1.

 **A/N: So! Yes, this may be half my usual effort but I promise that the next chapter won't take as long to post as I did for this chapter. Anywho, reviews!** **Zootopian Fluff - Hehe, that's good XD. I like to make things as interesting as I possibly can and I am happy to have you reviewing this story for so long! Sorry for the very, extremely long wait !** **Done!** **So for now, I have nothing to add on or anything but I hope you've enjoyed this story so far and continue to read on until the end. Thank you all who favourite, followed and all that good stuff. Until next time! Ciao!**


	21. Chapter 21: Connection

**A/N: Heeeeyyy I'm not dead! Sorry guys for... Stretching this too long and procrastinating the hell out of this story. I had revision, stress and exams and my own sanity actually took a turn for the worse but ya ain't here for a grandma's tale, I know. So I'm extremely sorry for dragging my updates out too long, I knowwwww. I'm frustrated at myself too, okay?** ***Sigh*** **Anyways, without further delay. Grab a nice snack, get (or snatch) a comfy seat, get that mean green reading device and well... Enjoy my half ass of work here hahaha.**

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The two fugitives were finally brought the station, having slept the entire trip back to the precinct the wolf and boar looked more refreshed if not still starving and suffering from the lack of proper nutrients. The pair of police officers then made their way to Bogo's office as it seemed as he wanted a word with them. They looked at each other curiously as they arrived in front of the large office, exchanging questioning and curious glances before pushing often the door.

Bogo's ears flicked at the sound of the door being pushed open and looked up to see the two smaller officers enter the room.

"Officer Hopps, Wilde. I appreciate you coming here on such a short notice but I am sorry to say you've more cases to solve." The pair's eyes widened.

"What is it Chief?" Judy's nose twitched worriedly as she looked up at her boss.

"There has been a disturbance at Tundra Town, Savanna Square and the Rainforest district. It seems there have been a raid carried out in all three areas at the same time by some civilian mammals at 9 last night simulously and a large number of mammals have been kitnapped and have been taken away to who knows where."

"This couldn't be a coincidence….. It was all planned out. But if they have took mammals why don't they use them as hostages fo get ransom money? Unless that wasn't their goal….." Nick racked his brains at every possibility that he could come up with, confused as to what this all would mean, why would mammals be taken but not used as hostages for ransom. Why would they need mammals for if not for money or to kill? It was as clear as day that this was no ordinary case. Something wasn't right, they had been missing something this whole time but what was it?

First the case with Carla and James and then the case with the kits and their parents. Mammals had been taken into hiding in the second case, hidden away. But why? What had they missed? His head felt like it'd explode as he kept thinking before a soft paw found his arm to hold it gently. He looked to the side and saw Judy's worried eyes. It helped him to calm down and he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Bogo looked over at the two exhausted officers and sighed.

"But, I suppose the tracking can wait. You two are part of the few who are still available to handle this case and I need you to be well rested to handle it. Take the rest of the day off and report bright and early tomorrow to start figuring out the masterminds' motives behind of both the first and second case. Dismissed."

With those words they saluted and hopped off the large chair. Usually, a case or two wouldn't be too tiring but this? This was chewing them out and drawing out the energy from them from thinking and moving their minds into different things constantly. They hadn't the time to fully recuperate but they had a job to do and duty to perform. But for now, they wanted to sleep, badly. The day had been surprisingly tiring and their eyes didn't seem to want to stay open as they drove back home. Well, Judy's home. Nick's home had suffered and it had to be taken down all over again and rebuilt, hence, moving in with Judy was the cheapest and the most convenient of his choices. There was also a few more benefits to living with the rabbit…. Some not as appropriate as others to speak of. The tod smiled to himself, yawning as he felt exhaustion inch closer as he parked the car and turned off the engine.

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A sheep in an old room kicked a wall and growled. Stupid tiger, this place was so dusty and dirty, and yet he wanted her to stay here?!?? The disgusting place could go collapse on him for all she cared…. She took a deep breath and sighed. Not good Carla. Keep your cool. Everything is going perfectly. You can't discard your scapegoat now or else you'll definitely be caught. She sighed and smiled sweetly at nothing. A few more days and she would either conquer and rule the whole of Zootopia or use Jones as a scapegoat so she would still have a chance to take over. She turned and walked to the drawer next to the bed, opening a compartment and fishing out an old picture, yellow around the edges and a bit torn. Two small lambs were smiling, hugging each other and wearing matching glasses, one was taller than the other and both wore big smiles on their muzzles. She ran a hoof over the image of the smaller lamb.

I'll make your dream come true sister. Trust me. I will.

The next morning a grey doe woke up early, 5:30am on the dot. She yawned and stretched, humming as she heard her joints popped delightfully. She looked over at the couch and smiled as she saw the fox still snoozing away. The doe got up, though reluctant to wake him up and break the moment of cuteness they had an important task today. Shaking him awake, he slowly got up and smacked his lips, stretching wide before flopping back down.

"Mornin' Fluff" he mumbled.

"Good morning to you too. Now why don't you wake up now and get dressed so we can have some coffee before work?"

Nick hummed at the thought of the familiar bitterness of coffee and its aroma.

"Sure Fluff. Drinks on you."

"Oh come on. Aren't we adult enough to get our own drinks?"

The tod chuckled and opened an eye, looking at the wonderful bunny in pj's.

"Nuh uh, I'll always be a kit inside."

Judy giggled at his words and patted his head.

"Oh fine. Drinks on me. But you gotta get up first."

"Okay, okay…" he chuckled as he got up, popping the joints down his spine before yawning and heading to the shower with his uniform.

Judy watched the red tod stroll into the shower, smiling. To think they were first enemies. It was an unthinkable thing now.

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"Alright. So what do we know about Carla and Jones' plans?"

Judy thought aloud as she tapped the back of her carrot pen against her chin, notebook at the ready. They were at their office, figuring they needed to sort out some clues they could have gotten to try and crack the case.

"Well, Jones masterminded the kitnapping of several mammals before. And this time he and Carla are constantly sending terrorists to get ransom money."

Judy scribbled it down, nodding her head.

"And why are they doing that?"

"Not too sure… Maybe it's the usual money obsession…. I can't of anything else."

Judy hummed and leaned on her fist.

"We didn't have much time to investigate this case… So how about the second case?"

"Well, we found kitnapped kits and found out families had been kitnapped at night. While the kits were tortured the adults were trained brutally. But for what purpose….?"

Nick tapped his chin in thought, clearly, this was all too odd. But what was the connection? What were the masterminds of the kitnapping case aiming for? And what were Jones and Carla aiming for? Something felt off about both of these cases. They seemed…. One sided. Just pieces of a puzzle. But how did they fit in? He frowned and Judy scratched her head with her pen. Something was very very wrong here. After a while Nick ruffled his fur and sighed.

"Hey carrots. I think we need to find more clues… We're not getting anywhere at this rate."

She sighed too. "Agreed. I have to admit, though, these masterminds have done quite well to clear their tracks…"

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Curiously, Judy hopped off her chair and answered the door, it was Clawhauser.

"What's up Benji? Need us for something?"

"Well no, but the chief asked me to send this to you." he said as he pawed a file over to her.

The doe curiously flopped open the file, before her eyes widened.

"Nick. I think we found a big clue."

Nick raised a brow and walked over, peering over her shoulder and his eyes widened too. Inside was Grey's mug shot and profile. But that wasn't shocking. What was was his statement that read.

"I used to be a part of Carla's gang so when she asked me to kitnap families I didn't hesitate to do it, afraid for my life if I refused."

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 **A/N: Eeeey that's that. I knowknow, I'm a dumbo for dragging this out too long... Could've done more chapters... I realize that too. But it's after exams! And hopefully I'll get mkore chapters faster and more lengthy... If ya'll like my old way of more content in one chapter. And also I'll try to get more art done so see let's see if I get anything out on DA hahaha.** **Anyhow. Thank you guys for... Favoriting this story and following me even though I dunno why I got some of those while on my very long procrastination streak... But thank you. For the continuous support even if it's small compared to bigger writers it's more than I could ever ask for. So yeah. Uh... That's it for now. Toodles!**


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